A New Start
by Deepfreeze222
Summary: A man is thrown into Equestria after some family troubles. Here he meets and saves a girl from timber wolves and brings her back to Ponyville but will he be conscious when he does so? Notes: Anthro Ponies and this contains action, there just isn't a specific genre for it which doesn't make that much sense. Rated M just in case.
1. Chapter 1

Well my day has been lousy how about yours huh. I was just disowned by my own brother and promptly kicked out of the family business, all because I wouldn't do what he wanted me to do. When he did this I just left. I knew what was waiting for me. Brother or no I still held a lot of crucial information, the kind of information that gets people like him in a lot of trouble with the cops and six feet under with anyone else.

I was walking down a street in one of the seedier parts of town. I knew no one was going to mess with me. I had an army style haircut with jet black hair and a dragon tattoo on my left and right forearms. I also stood at an intimidating six feet, seven inches. I also weighed around three hundred and fifty pounds, most of it being muscle. If you were going to rob anyone it wasn't going to be me. Even if you were that dumb and had a few friends there was little chance that it would happen anyways. One of the few things I was actually good at was fighting. It was like I had a sixth sense for it, which was one of the few reasons my brother kept me around as long as he did.

I will admit at first he did it because we were brothers but as time went on he started looking at me as more of a tool then a person. I was his personal body-guard and head of his entire security force. Along with average intelligence I was the perfect man for the job.

We were as far apart genetically as you could get for full siblings, I was the oldest but he was the smarter one of us. He was practically a genius, which made him the perfect fit to run our company and instead of me our father handed the reigns to him. I was perfectly fine with that and we all knew it so it didn't cause any problems. He was a short little man standing his highest at five feet, seven inches and he had next to no muscle. We had completely different looks. He was blonde with blue eyes while mine were the standard brown, and he also always wore some type of suit while I wore either my uniform or a T and shorts. Many a time we questioned whether we were brothers, being so radically different, but every time we took the test it came back positive.

What had caused him to disown me was that he had started to employ my services in a different way. Being his brother I didn't have to worry about money, if I needed or wanted it, it was mine so I didn't actually get a paycheck. I just wanted something new to do. At first it started as simple things like getting some dirt on someone or intimidating them. I knew it was wrong but he was my brother and if anyone was going to win in the long run it was going to be him if I could help it. Eventually though they started getting more and more convoluted and dangerous. The last mission he attempted to give me called for me to kill someone. An employee of his who had said some things to his bar buddies. When I refused we had an argument that quickly escalated and he disowned me right then and there.

Which is where I find myself now.

While I was walking I was thinking of what would happen to me. I knew I could hold out for a while, everything his company knew about combat was from me. But I still know that I can't hold out forever. All of sudden I heard a grunt coming from the alleyway I was passing by. I was pretty sure I knew what was happening and I was glad. I really wanted to kick some ass and a pathetic little mugger was no match for me.

I turned into the alleyway and saw what was going on. There were three men of average build and height and a much taller man of a bigger build. All of them were carrying some sort of blunt weapon with the big guy carrying a kind of makeshift war hammer. They had formed a semi-circle around a women who looked like she lived a good life, whatever the reason she was here was beyond me.

"Hey boys hows the party?" I said with my rumbling voice.

"Get lost pops." One of them said who was wearing a blue winter hat. Some people are just downright wierd.

"Look dude, I am 28 I ain't no pops."

"Either way get of here or we gonna bust your shit." The large one said.

"Yeah bust your shit." Snickered one with nothing but overalls on. Who the hell were these people?

"What did I tell you about repeating what I said?!" The big one yelled at mr. overalls who looked like he was about to crap himself.

"I'm sorry Donny, I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Overalls cowered.

"It better not." Donny told Overalls.

"Now where were we? Oh yeah, get lost." Donny directed at me.

"I'll get lost when I find out you aren't going to hurt that woman right there." I stated as I pointed to the woman who hadn't moved from her spot.

"We ain't gonna hurt her, just rob her." Snickered snow cap.

"I am afraid I don't like that plan either."

"Well what are you gonna do about it Mr. 28."

"Well, I will give you one chance to let her go. If you don't take that chance _I _will bust _your_ shit." I told them while crossing my arms and putting all my weight on my left leg.

"Yeah I don't think so. There are four of us and only 1 of you." Overalls said to me.

"Holy crap you can count, I will admit I didn't think you could. Congratulations I haven't been this surprised in a while." I told him while wearing a grin.

He apparently didn't like this and rushed me swinging his crowbar left to right across his body. He had sloppy form and no idea what his next move beyond that was, disarming him was a cinch. I caught his crowbar out of the air. I ripped it out of his hands and with one arm bashed him up side the head promptly knocking him out. Lightweight.

"You're gonna pay for that!" Snowcap yelled and charged me. Have to give him credit he didn't make his first move until he was in actual swinging distance, though that didn't help him in the least.

Once he reached me, he brought his pipe upwards in attempt to uppercut me which was stupid since that is one of the least effective ways to use any blunt instrument on a human, disregarding your fists. I took a step back. Apparently he put all of his effort into that swing and when he realized that he had missed it was too late. His arms continued upward and over his head. The momentum from the swing and the pipe made him stumble backwards, the sudden shift in movement causing him to fall backward. He landed with a hard thud and held the back of his head with his hands. I just stepped over him and started walking over to Donny and the other guy, who for the most part looked like a real thug.

He just ran. I noticed the woman was gone, clever girl, and Donny was fuming.

"We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, please let it be the hard way. I haven't fought someone who stood a chance against me in years." I said this while I slowly cracked my neck and forced my knuckles together, applying a forceful push from each arm and popping all of them in one go.

"Bring it mother fucker." Donny called to me.

I stopped and waited for him to make the first move. He took the bait and charged me like his friends did, he had his hammer held like you would a sword waiting to give an uppercut while in a run. He stopped a few feet short of me and swung turning his momentum into centripetal force. Good thing I expected this or my head would have been on its own for the rest of my life. I ducked and got in his guard making his hammer nearly useless. I put a quick few jabs into his gut and a hard one to his kidneys. When he threw the hammer away and tried to grab me I side-stepped out of his guard and behind him. I clapped my hands over his eardrums popping them. By now he was on pure adrenaline and rage. After he recovered he lunged at me with a fist. I grabbed his wrist and elbow and used his momentum to slam him into the wall while at the same time almost breaking his elbow. He slammed into it and slumped to the ground. I was about to walk over to him to finish the job when I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I fell to the ground noticing the little prick who ran away had somehow stabbed me in the neck with a syringe.

"Good night Caine. You will be in a better place after this and you won't have to worry about your brother anymore." Syringe said.

"How do...do you know my name? What di...did y-you injeectt meee wittthhh?" I started slurring my words and fighting the feeling that was coming over me. My mind felt clouded and I couldn't move.

"I know a great deal about you and you are needed in another place. I am the one who was to get you there. Goodbye Caine, I hope you appreciate what I have done for you."

Suddenly he shot past me into the... non existant floor? He wasn't the one who shot past me I had shot past him I realized with a start. I quickly approached what looked to be the sun but was too small and dark. I went into it and felt extreme pain.

I could feel things in my body changing. I felt my legs expanding and elongating. I felt my back doing the same. My muscles were on fire now and each muscle was spasming in my body so fast I felt like I was on the sun.

Suddenly I fell and landed in a small clearing in what appeared to be a forest. I couldn't move and just laid there. About an hour later I heard, what appeared to be a young girl, scream her head off. I slowly got up, I noticed that I appeared to be taller, almost seven feet I assumed. I also felt much stronger and noticed my arms were gigantic compared to an average man's.

I took off through the forest following the sound of the girl's screams. I eventually came upon another clearing with a girl and a wierd looking wolf. I decided to act like an ass for the sheer fun of it once I noticed the wolf was just messing with her for the time being, reveling in making its soon to be prey scream in fear. That wolf is one twisted asshole.

I snuck up on it and grabbed its tail pulling it back so my face was right next to its.

"Hello." "Goodbye" I said as I put my new muscles to good use and chucked the, surprisingly lightweight, wolf out of the clearing.

The little girl looked up at me with tears streaming down her face.

"Hey it's alright, the wolf can't hurt you anymore, I am a friend. Come on lets get you back home. Where is the nearest exit?" I said in a comforting tone while holding a hand out to her. She took it and pointed in a direction. When she lowered her hand I heard a chorus of growls.

I looked behind me to see quite a few of those wolves. One of them was one thing but a whole pack was another. I could easily take them but not without her getting hurt if they decided to go after her, which they would since she was by far the weaker prey.

I scooped her up in my arms without hesitation and took off in the direction she pointed. I could here the wolves howl and then begin the chase. We were on equal ground in the forest. I was much more nimble with two feet then they were with four and there were more of them so they had to be careful not to bump into each other, but I did know that when we reached open ground I would lose any advantage I had.

I kept running until I saw a break in the trees. I jumped over some roots and landed breaking into another run. I saw a town up ahead but everything seemed to be shaded a slight pink and it looked almost medieval. I was about twenty feet from it when I tripped. The girl went flying out of my arms and landed in the grass a few feet away. I tried to get up but was pinned down when one of the faster wolves leaped on my back.

"Run!" I yelled at the girl. I could tell she didn't want to but she complied. The wolf on my back tried to go after her but I grabbed its hind leg causing it to fall. I rolled making it roll with me. I got up quickly while still clutching its hind leg. I swung it around just in time for it to collide with another wolf. The girl was almost to the village. While I was stupidly watching her one of the wolves got past me and shot towards the girl. I yelled and charged it. My yell threw it off for just a split second which I used to my advantage to catch up and tackle it. We rolled on the ground. It had the advantage in this position, I couldn't get my punches anywhere near full power while it was free to claw and bite at will. I threw it off of me. I got up and rushed it, blowing it apart in my charge. This freaked the hell out of me and I stared at it just a smidge too long. The last wolf took its chance to redeem its brothers and jumped on my back and bite into the crook of my neck. I felt the teeth go straight through the skin and begin to crush my collar-bone. I started feeling really warm and wet all of sudden by my shoulder and realized I was bleeding heavily. I grabbed its neck, holding it in place, and fell backward destroying it when I landed. I felt a piece of something sharp go into my side and through it. The last thing I remember is seeing a woman run towards me with a little girl next to her. I knew I was losing a lot of blood because they both had horns, wierd hair, and stark white skin. I passed out a few seconds later resigned in my fate knowing that the last thing I had done was something good.

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><p><strong>AN: Well here is my second story. I believe that I got a little carried away with my first one by making the romance be between a human and something besides a pony. This story is here to correct that. The love interest will definitely be pony, well, anthro pony but either way a pony none-the-less. If by this story you haven't noticed that I get my main character's names from a book series I wouldn't be surprised. Some freezer points to the person who can tell me which book series I am referring to. It shouldn't be too hard. This story will involve quite a bit more action then the last, as you can tell by the first chapter, but don't worry romance will still be a factor. Also, don't worry this won't replace 'The human's journey', I will probably only continue this if it is well received or if I just feel like it. I personally think that this chapter far outclasses my first chapter for my first story, so yeah, I think I have developed at least a little bit as a writer. See ya on the flip side.**


	2. Chapter 2: Reawakening

"Oh my hea OWWWW! Mother f'er that hurts!" I had tried sitting up in the middle of my sentence but my collarbone was not having any of that. I realized with shock that I had just felt pain which meant one of two things. The first being that I was in a hospital of some sorts, the room I was in looked like one with white walls, ceiling, and decor with hints of green here and there. The second that I was in hell, which could also make sense since I freaking hated hospitals with a burning passion.

The door creaked open and in stepped a woman with pink flowing hair and completely white who was surprisingly very hot for, what I assumed, was a demon.

"Am I in hell?" I asked with a blank face.

"What!? No. Why would you think that?"

"You have pink hair, completely clear and white skin, are in a nurses outfit, and completely hot all at the same time. In hell this would be giving the 'look but don't touch' mantra a whole new meaning."

I could see her blushing which wasn't helped with her white skin.

"Erm no sir. You are not in 'that place', no. I thank you for the compliment but may I ask, why don't you have a tail or hooves?"

"A tail or hooves? What are you talking about, did you even go to medical school? I should think by now that you would notice humans have neither of those." I stated slightly angry that I got the dim nurse.

"Human?"

"You're f'ing with me, aren't you?"

"I am sorry sir but I don't know what you are talking about. I don't know what a human is."

I then noticed she had hooves. And a pink tail matching her hair.

"Um, do... but... how... when did... what?" I mumbled stupidly while staring at her hooves.

"Sir I would kindly ask you to stop staring." She said it with kindness but also with force.

It was then that the past few hours of my life hit me like a brick.

"That s-o-b. He really sent me somewhere didn't he?" I just stared forward in puzzlement and confusion.

"Um sir, if you don't mind I need to give you a check up. I don't know what a human is but I don't want to question it right now so why don't we get started?" She asked politely

"Sure why not."

We spent the next 20 minutes doing routine procedures. Apparently what was normal for a human was also normal for a whatever it is my nurse was.

"Excuse me but could you tell me what exactly you are?"

"I am a pony." She obviously didn't give two fucks about me being a different species then her not to mention at the same time never having heard of hers which I found very strange. Maybe these ponies were different then humans, I could only hope.

"Well everything seems to check out. I was also asked to send in your visitor when you woke up. Are you ready to receive her?"

"Visitor? I don't know anyone here. And it's a woman none-the-less."

She gave me a confused look.

"What?"

"What is an anyone and a woman?"

"Well you are a woman, at least I assume so, you definitely look like one. And anyone is like people like any people."

"Well okay, here I would be considered a mare and I think you mean any_pony_."

"That is going to take some getting used to. Alright send her in please."

She walked out of the room and a few minutes later a purple haired wom- _mare_ came into the room. She was stark white just like the nurse and had a horn on her head. As a woman she was basically an 11. Everything worked.

"Oh I am so glad you are okay darling. How are you holding up?" She asked with concern evident on her face as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Pretty good considering. If you don't mind me asking, who are you and why did you visit me?"

"My name is Rarity and the filly you saved was my younger sister Sweetie Belle."

"May I ask why do you have a horn on your head?"

"I am a unicorn dear. Have you never met one before?"

"You could say that I am not from anywhere even near to being around here." She just gave me a blank expression at that. After a few awkward moments she spoke again.

"Well in that case, do you have anywhere to stay for the time being?"

"No I don't. I can find somewhere and if anything I can just live in that forest on the edge of town." I told her not noticing that she was inviting me to stay with her.

"Well for thanks for saving my sister you could stay with her and I until you get on your hooves."

I considered it, live with the very hot anthropomorphic unicorn horse and her sister or live in a forest with deadly discombobulating wolves. The winner was clear.

"I think that would be nice thank you very much."

"Splendid. If you are ready we can check out right now. The doctor said you only needed to have a few stitches and your collarbone should be back to normal in a few days."

"I think I can get up." Yeah it turns out I needed help. The first time I tried I immediately regretted it, the pain was spectacular. When it throbbed away I tried it again with Rarity's help with much better results. I was stiff but as long as I actively kept my arms from swinging and didn't use my neck all that much I was fine. Rarity panicked a little when she saw my feet and absence of a tail but I told her it was just a birth defect that was actually very helpful. Surprisingly she bought it but I think that she just didn't want to make me feel uncomfortable.

We walked down to the check out counter after I had gotten dressed. The nurse from before was stationed there and looked at me a little weirdly but didn't object when I signed out.

"Darling we have to make a stop first by my friend Twilight's house. She was absolutely adamant about meeting you." Rarity said with a guilty tone, I guess she didn't want to put me through anymore then I had already gone through.

"Not a problem." I smiled at her which helped to cheer her up a little.

A few minutes later we arrived at a giant tree with windows and a door which Rarity walked in to while motioning for me to follow. I walked inside and was immediately met with a sight of dozens upon dozens of books all scattered throughout the room. It looked like a storm had been through here.

"Twilight! I am here with the stallion who rescued my sister!"

"I will be right down." Called a feminine voice from upstairs.

Eventually a woman-_mare_, crap, walked down the steps. She was a light purple with a horn and dark purple hair with a purple streak running through it. She obviously wasn't supposed to be objectively as beautiful as Rarity but the smart types always caught my eye. I noticed I was staring, a little slack-jawed as well, and quickly turned away while clearing my throat. Twilight noticed this as well and blushed a little but quickly got over it.

Rarity motioned for Twilight who complied and walked over. They started whispering to each other until Rarity said something and Twilight's face went from shock to happiness to panic all in about a second. Her horn suddenly glowed and a scroll and ink and quill floated over to her. She wrote something down really quickly before her horn grew brighter for a second before a loud pop sound occurred and the scroll disappeared.

I basically had a mini-panic attack at the sight of this but managed to keep the girls from noticing, or so I thought.

"Uh what was that all about?"

"I just wrote a letter to princess Celestia. She would like to meet you. Will you still be here in a few days?" She said as she gave me a wierd look while walking closer to me and touching my arm. If I didn't know better I would say she was trying to manipulate me but I don't know better so that is exactly what I thought. Though I would have to stay here since I didn't have any friends or family or even prior knowledge to fall back on. If I left there is no telling how long I will survive for.

"I guess." I told her as I moved away from her grasp. Don't get me wrong she was hot but alarm bells were going off in my head.

She looked a little down trodden when I moved away but perked up all in the span of about a second. "That's great! Do you have a place to stay until she arrives?"

"Yeah, I am staying with Rarity." She seemed a little saddened by this but accepted it none-the-less. Damn, she is pretty good actor. Manipulative bitch.

"Alright then well I guess I will let you two be on your way."

"Okay then dear. It was nice chatting with you, until next time ta-ta." Twilight just waved to her friend and I as we walked out of her library tree.

"She really should get an assistant, that place was just a hurricane of books." Rarity visibly saddened at this.

"She did have one a few years ago. A dragon named Spike, oh he was the cutest little thing. But with all things he grew up and left, mostly to explore the world."

"Were you close to him?" I could tell this was a touchy subject and that I would have to tread lightly.

"Very, he even had a crush on me but I didn't reciprocate at the time. Eventually he got over me and moved on." She sighed as she said the last part.

"Well if he got over you then he wasn't the one for you. Don't worry there are other stallions out there." Oh god I was already starting to assimilate. That happened fast, good thing my brother was obsessed with horses or I would be completely lost right now.

"It is just so hard to find a good stallion these days. Every mare wants one and there are only so many. They get want they want and don't want anything afterwards."

"What do you mean by 'there is only so many'?" This confused me a great deal.

"Weren't the gender ratios skewed back where you came from?" My statement confused her more than hers did me, surprisingly.

"No they were about one to one. Why?"

"Here in Ponyville and most of Equestria it is about five to one favoring the mares."

"Seriously? How do pony's find love?" This place was messed up.

"Well many don't, in many places it is acceptable even outright encouraged for multiple mares to share a stallion."

"Really? So basically your whole society is based on polygamy. Where I am from that is frowned upon. Is it even allowed for a stallion to have one mare?"

"Yes but that is exceedingly rare these days and may eventually be a thing of the past."

"Well either way I don't have a doubt you will be able to find someone. Where I come from you would be considered gorgeous and stallions would be flocking to your doors just to meet you."

"Thank you for your kind words Caine. They mean a lot coming from a stallion such as yourself." What the hell did she mean by that. I am really hoping I am not looked upon as a potential mate for some of these mares.

We walked the rest of the way to Rarity's house. What awaited me was something only out of one of my nightmares. Apparently Rarity was a clothing maker slash fashionista and her house modeled this. It looked like a combination carousel and boutique with the actual name being carousel boutique. Most of the first floor was filled with mannequins and an assortment of materials for her to use.

She showed me to my room which was actually pretty spartan for someone like Rarity. All it had was a queen sized bed, a bedside table, desk, respective lamps, and a small couch and dresser. I thanked her and set upon the bed absolutely exhausted. The sun was going down and I instantly fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

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><p><strong>AN: I just really wanted to do another chapter. The ponies are slightly larger than their human counterparts. Girls like Rarity and Twilight come up to about midway between Caine's elbow and shoulder while Stallions like Big mac would come up to just about two inches below Caine. Regular stallions come up to about shoulder height. I changed Caine's age from 32 to 28 (yeah I am a fickle mother fucker, deal with it). Assume that the Mane 6 are that age as well. Also assume that everyone is at least a C-cup or bigger, I don't care if it is sexist I like it that way, besides there are a lot worse than C-cup for the base, if you don't know what that is you are probably too young to read this story. Spike isn't around because I don't like him in fanfics along with Scootaloo, Discord, and the CMC together so I came up with a way to get him out of the story. I may give him a role in later chapters but that is a maybe. I still don't know who the love interest is but will figure it out soon. The scene between nurse Redheart and Caine I had to rewrite because the first version was what you would expect to logically happen and that opened up a whole can of worms that I just didn't want to deal with. I now know why other authors don't have their characters react as severely as they should. Also I just know someone is going to be offended by Caine calling Twilight a manipulative bitch, if you don't like that then you probably won't like Caine as a character since he is naturally untrusting of other people. He also doesn't see any of the ponies he has met so far as a potential love interest so he doesn't think any of them see him that way. See ya on the flip side.**


	3. Chapter 3: Apple of the unicorns' eye

I was having my first dream in years. I was at the beach all alone, sitting in my favorite lounge chair from home. I had on a hawiiaan shirt and some comfortable shorts and sandals while sipping some good old-fashioned rum. That was until I heard a crash from down the hall.

I really didn't feel like getting out of bed but I was up now and there was no denying it. It was a complete possibility that Rarity had just bumped into a vase or lamp or something of that nature. Then again Rarity didn't strike me as a clutz so I decided to check it out.

What I found didn't make me happy.

"I said give me the money or else I am going to take it from your pretty little body. That horn of yours should do nicely." A man had cornered Rarity in her room and there was a cut above her eye, suggesting that she had been hit. There was a broken lamp on the floor near them so I assumed that was what did it.

"I assure you sir I don't have any debts that I know of. Please, just leave and let me be." Rarity pleaded with him.

"That isn't what my boss says now don't make me repeat myself again. Give me what you owe my boss. Now!" At this he took a step forward and got in real close to Rarity. By this time I had had enough of his crap. I silently walked into the room. Rarity noticed me and smiled like she had just won the lottery.

"What are you smiling for you little b-ACK" I had stalked up behind him and got him into a sleeper hold.

"She is smiling about me, dick." I whispered into his ear.

He reached for his pocket but looked shocked and confused when his hand came back empty.

"Looking for this?" I asked him while holding up a tiny blade no more than two inches long not including the handle.

"Yeah I'm not stupid. Also where the hell did you get a knife like this, it is pathetic."

The next thing I know he elbowed me in the ribs really hard knocking the breath out of me.

I let go of him and stumbled backwards. He took his advantage and spun and kicked me in the side of the head. Those hooves are freaking hard! I was on the ground dazed and winded. He may have been quick on the draw but he wasn't that smart. He turned back around to Rarity, believing me to have been disposed, and picked his little knife up. Suddenly it glowed and gained 5 inches in length turning it from a tooth pick to a serious weapon. It even had a serrated side.

"Now where were we?" I had got my breath back and stood up. I rushed him and grabbed the arm that held the knife and twisted it in such a way that he had to let go. I then let go of him and spun and kicked him the same way he did to me before hand. He recovered quickly and charged. I sidestepped and tripped him but he expected this and pulled me down with him. We rolled on the ground, my superior height being my weakness in this situation. He got in quick punches that, well they didn't hurt all that much, made me feel tingly and slow. I threw him off of me and rolled to my feet as he did the same. It was time to end this and we both knew it. We charged each other, him going for an uppercut and me a straight punch. What he didn't know was that, despite my size, I was extremely nimble. I twisted behind him before we connected and got in a donkey punch to his head with full force. This had the intended effect and he crumpled to the floor moaning. I decided to finish it by straddling him and grabbing his hair. I lifted it up and delivered the strongest punch I had, knocking him out for, hopefully, the next few hours.

"Caine, oh thank Celestia you were here. He would have taken my horn. Thank you darling just thank you." She walked over to me and crushed me in a hug after I stood up.

"Who was that guy and why did he say you owed his boss?" I said as I pushed her away. I don't like being touched to much outside of a fight.

"To be honest I haven't the slightest idea. I haven't taken out a loan in years and I have always paid them back." She told me with a sad expression on her face while looking at the unconscious stallion.

"Well with me here you won't have to worry too much. I suggest finding the nearest law enforcement and getting this stallion arrested."

"Good idea Caine. I will go send out a call and will be back in a few minutes."

Rarity did indeed come back in a few minutes telling me that a royal guard would be here within the hour to pick up the would be thief.

"That's good. At least we know he won't be coming back. We should take him downstairs." I suggested.

"Good idea." She agreed.

We walked down the stairs and I set the stallion on her couch while she went into the kitchen to make breakfast as the sun was coming up. I pulled up a chair to keep on eye on him till the guard showed up. About half an hour later there was a knock on the door. Rarity rushed out of the kitchen to answer it and in a few moments came back with two guards in armor.

"We will take this from here sir." One of the guards said.

"Good, be careful he knows how to fight."

"We are trained professionals, you need not worry."

"I don't feel like fighting him again. I may not win."

With that the guards took their leave with their new prisoner. Rarity called me into the kitchen and we sat down to eat. It was a standard meal with hash browns, eggs, and surprisingly sausage. Good thing these ponies eat meat or I could have been in real trouble. I didn't feel like eating a can of cashews every day for the rest of my life.

"This is really good Rarity, thank you." It was good. Very good, especially since I don't, and can't, cook for myself.

"It is the least I could do Caine. You saved my life and indirectly my business."

"What do you mean?"

"That stallion was going to cut off my horn and sell it. Unicorn horns are some of the most treasured things in all of Equestria. Without my horn I would lose much of my business, I would be much slower filling out orders and I would have to relearn how to use my hands for making my masterpieces. I just wish there was some way I could repay you in full." At this she got up from her seat and walked over to me. She started rubbing my shoulders and I felt a sweet smell permeating the air around her, which was wierd since I didn't notice any perfume on her before.

She leaned down and whispered into my air in a very sensual tone "Maybe there is a way for us both to benefit, hmm?"

"Uh Rarity, are you okay?" Something was wrong here, very wrong.

"Nothing at all darling why do you ask?" At this she started nipping at my ear, I finally realized what she wanted to do to repay me. I quickly got up and turned around.

"I appreciate the thought Rarity but I..uh.." Excuse, excuse, excuse!

"Uh.. I am flattered but I am not really in the mood right now." Worst excuse ever, you moron! That leaves room for later!

"I can wait." Rarity said while walking away swaying her hips and tail purposefully.

"Oh thank god." I whispered to myself. I looked at the little bit of food I had left on my plate and realized I had lost my appetite. I picked it up and dumped it into the trash can before rinsing it off and putting it in the sink to wash later.

"Rarity, may I use your shower!?" I shouted out to her.

"Of course darling, do you need any help in there?!"

"No I am good thanks!" I set upon looking for the shower only to realize a few things. One, my shoulder didn't hurt anymore at all. Two, I didn't know where the shower was. And three, I didn't have an extra set of clothes.

"Hey Rarity?!"

"Yes?"

"Could you come here for a second?"

"Of course darling."

She found me a few minutes later in my room sitting on my bed.

"Well well well, decided to take me up on my offer so soon. Alright." Before I could say anything she jumped on me smashing her lips to mine. I tried pushing her off of me but she had a death grip around my neck.

"mmm hmm mmm"

She finally let go of me.

"Yes?" She looked at me confused.

"That isn't why I called you. I do need a favor though."

"Oh, well okay then, what is it?" She seemed a little sad at this. She is either extremely horny right now, she is ovulating, or she has just never had a stallion in her life. Either way I didn't want to find out because whichever one it was would make me very uncomfortable bringing it up. And I really didn't want to have a relationship with a mare I had just met. Okay, did I seriously just go from absolutely adamant about staying out of the game to pondering who I want? The fuck is wrong with me! This place is messing with my head, I just know it.

"I need an extra pair of clothes and I don't know where the shower is."

She perked up a little bit at this "Is that all you need? I will be happy to oblige. But my offer still stands." She got up and walked out of the room but not before blowing a kiss my way. I needed to have a serious talk with her about this.

I realized that she didn't have my measurements and I went to go find her.

Apparently she could tell what my measurements were just by looking at me. I just decided to roll with it and hop in the shower. She was making good time and said she would be done within the next half hour.

I found the shower on the second floor right next to my room. There were towels and wash clothes inside already so I decided to just use one of those instead of seeking some out.

I hopped in the shower and let the water run down me for a few minutes thinking about what had happened within the last two to three days, most of which I was unconscious for. I had apparently healed completely over night and took the bandages off and threw them away before I got in. After a few more minutes I started washing myself until I heard the door open and someone walk in. Instead of just setting the clothes down somewhere and leaving like I expected Rarity to do, she instead decided to pull the curtain back and tell me. I was not pleased.

"Rarity, the hell?!" I said as I covered myself up.

"Ooh, we will have some fun later my stallion." She winked at me and left me feeling very self-conscious and angry. I definitely needed to have a talk with her about this. I finished washing up and got out. I toweled my self off and realized I didn't have a tooth brush, I would have to get one later. My clothes were complete replicas of my other ones only with different color schemes. The shirt was a deep violet and the shorts were black. I'll admit, Rarity knows her way around a needle. They fit like a glove and felt to be made of silk.

I walked out of the bathroom after cleaning up my mess and went downstairs to find Rarity at a work station, apparently sketching.

I cleared my throat to get her attention. "Oh, Caine. Do you like the clothes?"

"I love em Rarity but we need to have a talk."

"About?"

"About us." At hearing this she broke out into a large grin.

"I don't think you get what I mean." She deflated at this statement.

"Rarity, you are gorgeous. On a scale of ten to one with ten being the highest, you're an eleven but I don't think we can be anything. I don't know how Equestria works but where I come from, you don't usually sleep with someone after you just meet them. We barely know each other Rarity. For all you know I could be one of those stallion players and leave you after I get what I want. I hope you aren't mad." She looked on the verge of tears but composed herself.

"I understand, I will stop forcing myself on you. I am sorry if I offended you darling but it has just been so long since I could call a stallion anything more than an acquaintance. And you seemed like the perfect stallion. Strong, brave, NOBLE, and kind. But if you do not wish to be anything I will respect that."

"Thank you Rarity. Maybe in time when we know each other a bit better we could try but not now." She looked down right depressed after I said this and I felt really bad but I didn't know what else I could say.

Thankfully I heard a knocking at the door. "I'll get that Rarity." She just nodded and returned to her work.

I walked to the door and opened it to find myself staring down at Twilight who was looking down and reading a scroll.

"Hello Rarity I need to speak with CAINE!" She looked up when she said my name and jumped back dropping her scroll and holding a hand to her chest.

"Caine you startled me."

"Sorry." She calmed down and picked up her scroll.

"It's alright, I do need to speak to you though. Can you come with me to the library?" She asked, hopeful.

"I don't see why not. Hold on let me go tell Rarity."

"Alright." I ran back to Rarity's workbench to tell her that I was going with Twilight to her library. She just nodded and didn't look up. She had a slight grimace on her face but I didn't feel like it was my place to ask her about it. Especially not after what I just put her through.

I came back to the front of the boutique. Twilight and I set off for her library in silence. We arrived a few minutes later and entered.

Apparently Twilight had cleaned up because the library was free of stray books. She gestured for me to sit on the couch and I complied. She set her scroll down on a table and walked over to the couch I was on. She sat down uncomfortably close to me. I scooted away from her which she frowned at.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" I startled her out of her day dreaming.

"Well, you see, princess Celestia would like to speak with you and she will be coming over today to do so. I also wanted to ask you a few personal questions, if that is alright with you." Oh my god these mares!

"As long as I am comfortable with it I will answer." She grinned at this and looked like she wanted to bounce in place which she almost started doing.

"Okay, where are you from?" Well that is a simple question, why not?

"I am from Caracusa, in the states." She looked confused by this but didn't question it any further.

"Do you have any siblings or children?" She said children very strangely.

"I am too young to have kids and I have one brother but we don't speak to each other anymore." She seemed happy with my answer and didn't press on for the reason, which I was glad for.

"Do you have a significant other?" Okaaaaayyyy. I don't see how this one could hurt me actually.

"Nope, to be honest never have. I never really cared for relationships all that much, I didn't go chasing after wo-mares, like most other stallions. If they wanted they could come to me, though I assume I intimidated them too much for them to outright approach me and I am the densest stallion you will ever meet." Hopefully this will deter her from trying to manipulate me anymore since she knows that her feminine wiles have no effect on me.

"You mean you have never been in a relationship?"

"Nope and I am okay with that." I really was, unlike most men my goal in life was not to get laid at some point.

"No offense but that sounds terribly lonely. Don't you ever just want to hold somepony or be held?" At this she started inching her way closer to me. I noticed this and inched away from her. To bad there was only so much couch.

"No not really." I had to get out of this and was sure this would do it but if anything it made her more determined. She inched even closer but instead of trying something drastic like trying to kiss me or something more extreme she just sidled up to me and laid her head on my shoulder, letting out a contented sigh.

"Isn't this nice?" She asked without taking her head off my shoulder.

"A little bit. May I ask why are you doing this?" She had completely thrown me through a loop.

"To be honest you seemed lonely. No family, not many friends, and no special somepony, ever. I just wanted you to know what it felt like to be like this with somepony else."

I felt touched that she cared for me this much but was still a little apprehensive about all this.

"Thanks for the gesture Twilight but to be honest, I don't know you well enough for this type of sustained physical contact."

"Oh ok, well that is to be expected I guess." She looked sad but not like she was about to cry and scooted away from me much to my relief. We sat for the next half hour in silence before there was a flash and a large pop.

I had to blink a few times for before me was the tallest woman I had ever seen. She looked to be about as tall as I was and she had a horn and wings? She was completely white but for some reason she seemed whiter then Rarity and the nurse. She had royal attire on and she had breasts the size of mount Rushmore. This was obviously the princess and she looked powerful. It was then that I started to wonder if a mares power was measured by her breasts or vice versa, while this was an absolutely absurd and dumb theory it did hold credence. Twilight was bigger then Rarity by at least a cup and half and Celestia was in a class all her own.

"Your theory holds true Caine. I am princess Celestia, it is a pleasure to meet you."

Holy shit she can read minds. I am so boned.

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><p><strong>AN: It isn't rated M for nothing folks. I took little breaks while writing this chapter so some parts may be missing a line or two. If you notice this PM me and I will fix it. Yeah Celestia can read minds because why not. I did feel a little wierd with putting sexual stuff in the story but I chalk that up to me having never written something like that before, but if I don't get more comfortable with it I might tone it down because if I am uncomfortable with it I can't imagine how it looks to you guys. See ya on the flip side.**


	4. Chapter 4: Revelations

Um...uh... Hello? Princess Celestia." Yeah I was freaking out. She looked just like a white angel with a horn, I wasn't all that religious but this kind of stuff messes with your head.

"Calm down Caine, everything is alright. You will not be harmed if you do not attempt to harm others." She said in a very motherly voice, almost instantly calming me.

"There we go. We need to talk about your presence in my kingdom."

"I understand, if you wouldn't mind I would like to talk to you in private about this, your majesty." I got up off the couch and walked up to her and bowed, she was royalty after all and the monarch at that.

"So be it. Twilight would you kindly leave us?" She turned to Twilight.

"Yes princess. Call me if you need me." She got up to leave and walked upstairs, we heard a door close and knew we could speak freely. Celestia and I sat back down on the couch and faced each other.

"Since you apparently can read my mind there is no point in trying to hide what I am or where I have come from. Now please, I mean you and your people no harm unless it is necessary for me to do so. To be honest I am a slightly violent man but only because of my previous job...

I started explaining to her what I did for a living and how my life had been like up to the fight with the thugs. I explained to her what happened after that, to give her credit she didn't bat an eye at all the things I had done in my life but seemed to appreciate that I would not take another's life without a very good reason.

After I had finished my story we started randomly talking about Equestria and the surrounding kingdoms. She told me about the three types of ponies and gave me a brief history of Equestria, eventually leading up to the defeat of Nightmare moon by the elements of harmony. She explained to me that the number of stallions has declined with each new generation with just a little less every time. Celestia feared that, eventually, stallions may cease to exist at all. She also informed me of my changes. Apparently I had been mutated to take on the properties of an Earth stallion which would explain my strength. She also told me that I would have to be careful with mares. Because I had been transformed from an already large and healthy human to an even larger and healthier stallion, I had been made a perfect genetic substitute for a real one and could actually have a foal if the need ever arose. I would also be seen as desirable to mares which would explain the way Rarity and Twilight were acting. I also had to be careful since families had very common types.

Apparently every family had at least one child. If that child was a colt they could expect another down the line and for it to be female. A sisters role in Equestria was to deal with all the riff-raff that wanted her brother and to sort through them all to find him a suitable mate or mates. Now since I didn't have anyone like that I would be approached quite often by low-level mares wanting a one night stand which I was never going to give them. If word did get out that I didn't have a sister, or at the very least another mare, looking out for me I could very well be swarmed, which I was hoping never happened.

She also said that my theory was almost spot on though not exact. It was different for each race of pony. For Unicorns it was the breasts, for Earth mares it was the ass, and for Pegasi it was a combination, in other words the better the ratio the more Pegasus magic they had. This all explained why Celestia, by far, was the most aesthetically pleasing female I had ever laid eyes upon. I knew she could hear my thoughts but she took it in stride. She also told me that it can change throughout a mares life. If she worked at her races abilities i.e. magic for unicorns, flying for pegasus, and strength for earth ponies, then they would get bigger or, in a pegasus' case, more refined.

She said that a certain pink pony named Pinkie Pie would be throwing me a party once she discovered me and Celestia thought it would be a good idea to introduce me officially to the town and tell them what I was. I didn't agree but who goes against a royalty?

While we were talking I felt like she held certain things about mares and stallions out of the conversation, whether that was from her forgetting or her actively doing it, I didn't know.

When we finished our conversation Celestia called to Twilight who was at the top of the stairs. I really didn't like snoops so I gave her a scowl as she walked down the stairs.

She noticed me scowling and assumed my reason for doing so.

"I am so sorry its just that... you are so strange and now I know why. Please I just wanted to know." She practically begged for my forgiveness. I looked to Celestia who gave me a stern look.

"It is fine but just don't do it again." She ran over and hugged me. I eventually pried her off. This was when Celestia decided to take her leave. Bidding Twilight and I goodbye, her horn glowed and with a pop and a flash she was gone. Twilight sat down next to me on the couch.

"So you are really from a different world?" She looked awestruck right now.

"Maybe, though I am not sure if I am from another world or another universe at the moment. To me it doesn't matter, either way I don't have to deal with anyone any more." I brushed off her statement, it didn't really matter to me. Either way I didn't have to deal with humans anymore and I could go on the rest of my life without worrying about social obligations. I could reinvent myself here and be the hermit I have wanted to be since I was disowned.

"Won't you get lonely? Everypony needs their special somepony." She looked like she was sad and I couldn't figure out why.

"No, I have plans. Plans that will keep me as far away from everypony as possible. I won't have to deal with anypony and no pony will have to deal with me. From what I have gathered I will probably be an outcast in your society, which I am perfectly fine with." I told her this while leaning back on the couch, lifting my leg up and onto my knee, and putting my hands behind my head and closing my eyes. Suddenly I felt Twilight crawl onto my lap. I looked down to see she had sat criss cross applesauce on my lap which felt really wierd but I could tell it was a calculated move on her part. In this position I wouldn't take it as something sensual and I would have to talk to her. She was just large enough to make me uncomfortable but at the same time slender enough to where she could actually fit.

"Why would you want to do that?" She was very confused by my mind-set.

"I don't want to have to deal with a bunch of horny mares twenty-four seven with most seemingly only thinking about having sex. I also probably won't be very popular with other stallions. A stallion who won't sleep with a mare just for the sake of sleeping with her and treating them with respect? Yeah, they aren't going to like that because then mares will expect them to act like me and the mares won't want to sleep with them anymore just so they can hopefully have a foal. I don't want to deal with it. Rarity tried seducing me this morning before you came over and to be honest I think you are trying the same thing just passive aggressively instead of full frontal assault. So forgive me if I want privacy from crazy mares." I told her all this with a scowl.

She started to tear up like I had hurt her feelings. To be honest I could have been a tad nicer but she did ask.

She got off of my lap and went up stairs, I am assuming, in tears.

I really didn't want to deal with this but I knew if I didn't fix it Celestia might not take too kindly to me next time she see's me. After a few minutes of pondering I followed her upstairs and heard her openly crying in what I assumed to be her room.

Knock knock

"Go away Caine!" I heard her shout through the door.

"Twilight come out and talk to me." I shouted back.

"Why? You think I am some horny slut!"

"I never said you were a slut, Twilight. I said I assumed you were trying to seduce me. Prove me wrong and come out here and tell me yourself that you were not trying to!"

I heard her stop crying for a second and then heard her hooves clopping on the floor. I heard them get nearer until they stopped and she opened the door. She was a mess with ragged hair and tear stains running from her eyes to her chin.

"I wasn't trying to seduce you Caine. I was trying to make you feel wanted."

"Then I am sorry but I stick to what I said before. I don't want to deal with horny mares for the rest of my life. Once I find a solitary job I will be leaving ponyville and moving to the surrounding country side, hopefully someplace where no one can find me if I don't want them to." I was adamant about this and no matter what she did she couldn't change my mind.

"I am sorry to hear that Caine but at least let me try to change your mind. Stay with me at the library and I will show you that not all mares are like what you perceive us to be. Please." What is with this girl and begging? Well, it couldn't hurt for me to let her try. She wasn't going to accomplish her goal anyway, might as well humor her.

"Fine but we need to lay down some ground rules first, okay?" She nodded.

"Rule one, no inappropriate touching. In other words no trying to fondle me or grope me. This also means no full on kisses. Pecks on the cheek are okay if they are deserved but that is the absolute limit." She looked a little offended but nodded.

"Gotta cover my bases Twilight. Second rule, privacy is key. I don't feel like giving another mare a show in the shower against my will. Before you enter my room you will knock first and only come in if I say it is okay." She nodded to this as well.

"Third rule, you will give me chores to do around the house as I don't feel comfortable being a free loader since I can't start a solitary job until I move out. You will have two months to change my mind. Is that enough time?"

"More than enough." She said with determination.

"Fourth and final rule. Don't volunteer me for anything. I have seen women do it in the past with their guy friends and I don't know if it is different here but I don't want to take chances. I might get a small job somewhere so I have a little spending money."

"That all sounds fair. What did you mean giving another mare a show in the shower?" She asked me as we walked back down stairs.

"This morning I took a shower. Before I got in I had asked Rarity to whip me up another set of clothes. She decided it would be a good idea to tell me that they were done by pulling the shower curtain away and getting a full view of Caine before I was able to cover myself up." We sat back down on the couch.

"Really? Wow, Rarity must be getting desperate to find a stallion. I hope she doesn't do anything rash and unlike herself." Twilight said with concern for her friend's well-being. After that the conversation kind of died down into silence. It didn't feel awkward for me but it probably did for her.

"So Caine, I was thinking that it would be a good idea to introduce you to my friends."

"Yeah I don't think so. I just want to get this two months done and over with. Rarity was enough for me. By the way I still need to tell her that I will be staying with you from now on. I should probably go do that." Without giving Twilight a chance to protest I got up and walked out the door. She eventually caught up with me.

"You are just going to tell her?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"I don't know how she will take it. She is obviously in to you so she might not be to keen on letting you go so suddenly."

"We worked it out this morning right before you arrived. I don't think we have anything to fear."

Boy was I wrong. Rarity flipped her shit when I told her I was going to live with Twilight. She acted like I had betrayed her or something, which I didn't thank you very much. Once she ran out of large things to throw at me, she turned her attention to Twilight and chewed her out saying things like 'how could you' and 'why', something along those lines. I stopped listening when she started throwing lamps. Once Rarity had stopped chewing Twilight out she ran upstairs and came back down and threw my other pair of clothes at me and called me a few choice words. Once she turned around Twilight rushed me out the door before Rarity actually got a lucky shot in.

"I told you telling her straight was a bad idea." Twilight scolded me.

"How was I supposed to know she had fourteen different styles of lamps on the first floor! I was only there for little over half a day and I was asleep for most of it. Either way though, I think it could have gone worse."

"How could it have gone _worse_?"

"She could have had decent aim or not have given me my original clothes."

"You're so mean." She told me as she playfully slapped my arm. We walked the rest of the way to the library in silence. The sun was going down when we entered.

Twilight showed me to my room which surprisingly looked exactly like Rarity's guest bedroom. I stripped down to my boxers and got into the bed and got comfortable for the night, eventually falling asleep.

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><p><strong>AN: How do you like my world building? If you don't, deal with it and if you do, good for you. Yet again another chapter that I took breaks during. Single bolded words indicate sounds required for context. I still don't know who I want the love interest to be. I am conflicted between Twilight, one of the other mane 6, another mare who doesn't reside in ponyville and another who does. I will definitely continue my other story I am just focused on this one right now. I might put out the next chapter for it this weekend but it will probably be short. See ya on the flip side.**


	5. Chapter 5: Encounters

**A/N: Yeah this chapter gets a little steamy later on. There isn't anything too bad but it does go into slight detail. Not intended for younger audiences. If you didn't know what I meant by C-cup in the second chapter's A/N then you are definitely not old enough to read this chapter. You have been warned.**

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><p>I didn't dream last night but I did wake up to quite a shock.<p>

I had just woken up but I hadn't opened my eyes yet. I just laid there for a few minutes until I noticed something off. I was pressed against something soft that wasn't the blanket or the pillow. My hand and arm were also wrapped around something. I gave a light squeeze and heard a moan. I slowly opened my eyes to reveal purple, to be more specific purple hair. I realized Twilight was in the bed with me and freaked out. I scrambled off of the bed and fell out on to my back on the floor with a loud thud. I heard Twilight scrambling to look over at me and saw her head pop over the side a few seconds later.

"Caine! Are you alright?" Twilight asked me while peering over the edge.

"Just dandy, was it good for you too?" I said with a scowl and a hint of anger in my voice.

She just looked at me with a confused expression on her face until realization dawned on her and she turned from purple to a deep scarlet.

"No no no no no, it's not what you think." She quickly told me while getting out of the bed to help me up.

When I stood up I realized two things. The first was that Twilight was only wearing a bra and panties and the second was that I was pitching a major tent. Go testosterone! The bitch.

I quickly scrambled into the bed but not before Twilight noticed. If it was possible she blushed even harder and it looked like it was permanent.

"Moving past my predicament, why the hell were you in my bed and why the hell are you only wearing your underwear?!" I gave her a deep grimace as I said this.

"Oh, I am really sorry it's just that I haven't been in the same bed with anyone in a long time and it was really cold last night so I came in here. You were sleeping and I thought you wouldn't mind. But it turns out that it was already really warm under the covers so I took off my pajamas. I promise you I didn't do anything. I didn't even know you only had your underwear on. Please forgive me I was just cold and lonely. Ever since Spike left it has been empty in the library." She looked really sad about this, I didn't want to make her cry again so I decided to forgive her but only barely.

"You forget anything you saw and I will forgive you and forget anything I saw." I said as I gestured to her almost naked body.

She quickly covered herself with her arms and muttering a quick thank you and ran out of the room grabbing her pyjamas.

"Crazy mare. If she is trying to convince me to see mares in a new light she isn't getting off to a good start." I mumbled to myself as I tried to will down my morning wood. Once it was down, finally, I grabbed my clothes and pulled on my shorts. I went to go find Twilight and ask her where the shower was. She was downstairs sitting on the, now, infamous couch and reading a book.

"I really am sorry about earlier Caine." She said, still noticeably sad.

"It's fine just don't EVER do it again. Am I clear?" I asked her this while she studied my chest area with interest.

"Twilight." I said sternly.

Startled out of her studying she said "Of course."

"Twilight I need to take a shower, can you point to me where your's is?"

"Sure follow me." She got up off of the couch and walked up the stairs while I followed. We went down the hallway that contained our rooms and at the end was the bathroom. I gave her a quick thanks and headed inside.

Thankfully my shower wasn't like the one at Rarity's. Twilight apparently had thought ahead and knocked on the door.

"Come in." I yelled to her.

"Caine, I got you a toothbrush and some stallions shampoo." At least she thought ahead in some situations.

"Thanks Twilight here hand me the shampoo." I said as I stuck my arm out of the shower. I felt her place it into my hands and leave.

I washed up and got out. I opened my tooth-brush and started brushing my teeth. The bristles were extremely tough for some reason but they worked like a charm, even though at one point I almost cut my gums open when I scrubbed to hard and caught them above one of my molars. When I was finished with this I got dressed and headed downstairs. Twilight was reading the same book but was almost done with it by now. She looked up at me and smiled.

"I don't really cook and I don't have anything we wouldn't have to cook for breakfast. Do you want to head out?"

"Sure. Where do you want to go?" I was fine with restaurants, mostly because people more usually more civilized there then they were at some place like a bar.

"There is this place called the hay bucket that serves delicious breakfasts, how about there?"

"Sounds good to me. I don't have any money though so I won't be able to pay you back until I get a job." I didn't like moochers and I didn't like hypocrites so I wasn't all that comfortable having Twilight pay for me when I could absolutely run this place out of business within an hour.

"Don't worry about it. I have enough bits and think of it as a sort of sorry for earlier."

"I told you Twilight, I forgive you, just as long as it doesn't happen again." She got off of the couch and walked over to me.

"I know but I still feel bad." We started heading for the restaurant.

"If you insist but I will find a way to pay you back. Have you figured out any chores that I could do around the house yet?" I wanted to steer the conversation away from this morning. I was finding it hard to forget what Twilight looked like with only her undergarments on, I'll admit she was hot.

"Well, winter will be here in about a month and I haven't had enough time to get some firewood stockpiled so you could go out and chop when we get home. I also need somepony to move some heavy boxes up from the basement so I can sort the books in them. I will have to think of others if you want more."

"I will need more but those should do for now but I will get to work on it when we get home."

We walked the rest of the way in silence. When we got to the restaurant we were quickly seated by a waiter who gave me a few odd glances but didn't say anything, probably because I was about a foot taller than him and about a hundred and fifty pounds heavier.

When we were seated he left to go take another order. We picked up our menus and I ordered the breakfast deluxe which included four eggs, six strips of bacon, a quarter pound of hash browns, and bagel with jelly. I also ordered a large glass of milk to wash it all down with. Twilight got a simple omelet and water.

We made small talk while we were eating, that is until I was jumped by a very vibrant and loud pink blur.

"Oh you must be Caine. Princess Celestia said she wanted me to throw you a GIANT party and that you were from somewhere really far far away. I'm Pinkie pie, how are you?" She said very quickly.

"Uh.. Hello...Pinkie pie, I'm good. How about you?" This one made me nervous.

"Oh I am great! The cakes and I went out for breakfast today and what a stroke of fate that you and Twilight were here. Oh I am so happy. Come to sugar cube corner at the end of the day for a big surprise." With this she left and practically bounced over to a stallion and mare and two baby foals, one with a horn and the other with wings.

"O-kay. That was unexpected." I said. I felt like I had whiplash.

Twilight giggled in response. "That is just Pinkie pie. She is one of my best friends. She can be a little over-bearing and slightly annoying when you first meet her but she has a good heart, just hyperactive is all."

"If you say so." With this Twilight and I resumed eating in silence. Since she was a rather slow eater and I was a rather fast one we finished around the same time.

Twilight called the waiter over and paid for our meal. We left soon afterwards and headed to the library. I decided that now was as good a time as any to bring up the boxes and boy was Twilight right, these things felt like they were filled with bars of gold. There was no way on earth that she was ever going to lift these on her own. When I brought up the last box Twilight opened them with her magic and brought the books out, she started sorting them almost instantly. I will admit this turned me on a little bit. I know I am a weird asshole but so are most people, at least I wasn't into BDSM, to be honest those people creep me out a little.

I headed out back to see a giant pile of logs that were way to big to fit in the fireplace. I had some chopping to do. I went to work with the axe and spent the rest of the day chopping, I only got a quarter of the way through and was tired and sweaty. When the sun started setting I decided to call it quits for the day and headed inside. I went upstairs to grab my clothes and took another shower. I would definitely need to wash my clothes.

When I came out of the bathroom Twilight told me it was time to go to Sugar cube corner.

We left a few minutes later and came upon the weirdest building I had ever seen about ten minutes later.

I was confused because it was completely dark inside with no signs of anyone being there.

Twilight just told me to go in I complied and almost crapped myself.

"SURPRISE!" A chorus of ponies yelled at me while I was blinded by the lights suddenly turning on. I felt like I had just been flash-banged.

Everyone quieted down immediately once they took in my form. I could tell they knew that I wasn't a pony but that didn't stop quite a few of the mares from giving me 'I am going to have fun tonight' looks.

I didn't want to beat around the bush so I just decided to go for it "Hello everpony. As you can see I am not one of you, I am whats called a human. I came here from another world and the magic here has transformed me into a half human, half earth stallion. I don't mean anypony any harm unless you mean me harm. Thank you for the party, I am glad to see that this community is a kind one." This seemed to calm them down a bit but a few of the stallions shot me looks of anger.

After a few tense seconds everypony started talking amongst each other and enjoying the party. I realized with utter terror that now everypony knew that I didn't have a mare looking out for me. I was beyond boned, figuratively and literally. I decided to try to blend into the party and got some punch. Afterwards I decided to lean against one of the walls. Eventually some of the mares started wandering their way over to me. The first one to get to me was a mare with green skin and white hair with minty green streaks in it.

"Hello handsome, my name's Lyra. Up for some fun later tonight?" Wow these mares weren't dicking around and Celestia really wasn't kidding, these mares were desperate.

"Uh not tonight, thank you. I am just here to enjoy the party." She looked utterly shocked.

"Uh... well okay. If you don't like the way I look just say so, you don't have to make up excuses." She looked angry now. Then her expression softened.

"But I forgive you. Make up rutting is the best rutting, when do you want to leave." She said with a sultry tone. God damn these mares. I was getting nervous, I started looking around for Twilight or Pinkie. I eventually spotted Rarity in a corner talking with another mare with rainbow hair and tail and skin the color of the sky.

"Hey look my friend is calling me. Be right there Rares!" I called out. She looked up and noticed me and Lyra and shot me an angry glare.

"Excuse me Lyra." I slipped past her much to her disappointment and made my way over to Rarity and the other mare.

"Hi..Rarity. Who is your friend?" I asked her while gesturing to the other mare.

"Names Rainbow Dash stallion. Rarity told me all about what happened and I don't think you should be here right now." She said with a warning tone.

"Why? I didn't do anything wrong." These mares seem to be just like women back home except twenty times hornier.

"Well lets see. You complimented her looks. You saved her life and her business. Denied her advances. And then left her for Twilight. What do you think?" She scowled at me.

"Am I missing something? Rarity I was never yours to begin with. I don't feel like using you like that or any of these other mares. My goal in life is not to rut everything in Equestria. I don't know if I lead you on Rarity but if I did I am sorry, I didn't mean to. Where I come from, mares control the show instead of stallions." I said while crossing my arms. For the first time since I walked over Rarity looked at me and sighed.

"I am sorry as well darling. I shouldn't have treated like that when all you did was show me respect. I also shouldn't have over reacted when you said you were going to be living with Twilight. By the way darling, why are you living with Twilight?" I knew if I answered this the wrong way then I would just land my self back in hot water so I decided not to answer her.

"Ask Twilight, she is the one with the plan. I do need a favor though." She was not pleased with me deflecting her question but didn't say anything.

"What is it?"

"Well actually two now that I think about it. The first is I need more pairs of clothes, I can't pay you right now but I will start looking for a job later this week. The second is that I need you to help me keep these horny mares off of me. I don't feel like being approached by them throughout the party." I could already tell that just being in the vicinity of Rarity and Rainbow made the other mares think twice about coming over here but sooner or later they would make their move.

"I think we can do that, how about you Rainbow?" She said with a grin.

"Shouldn't be a problem. Though we do have one condition." She said with an evil smirk.

"What is it?" I was wary of this.

"You have to sing." Rarity told me.

"What! Why?"

"Because we want to hear you sing." Rainbow answered.

"Is this absolutely necessary?" I groaned.

"Yes." They said at the same time.

"Fine, where do I go?"

"There is a stage right over there. Tell the white unicorn that we sent you and she will understand, pick a song and sing."

"Fine, I better not regret this." I started making my way over to the stage.

"And your new outfits will be ready by the end of the week darling." Rarity called to me. I just did a quick wave behind my back.

When I got onto the stage the mare up there, who had electric blue hair, started flirting with me and I just told her my situation. She understood and helped me pick out a song, I found one that was an exact copy of one back home and knew it was perfect.

She started playing it and I stepped up to the mic and started singing 'Jump Around'. These ponies weren't as namby pamby as I thought they were. Everypony got into it soon enough and started singing the chorus with me. A few of the lyrics were different but I didn't mind.

When I was done I walked back down the stage, and dodging a few mares, made my way back to Rainbow, Rarity, and Twilight, who had apparently joined them during the song, whose jaws were open and with a smug grin on my face. I knew my voice was perfect for that song.

"So ladies, time to hold up your end of the bargain. Now protect me." I spent the rest of the night by either Twilight, Rarity, or Rainbow dash all of whom kept the other mares away, thankfully. The party started to die down around midnight and everypony started leaving. Twilight and I bid Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow good-bye as we left and started walking home.

"Wasn't that fun Caine?" Twilight asked me with a grin on her face.

"I'll admit, it was kind of fun despite being stalked by about forty different mares at once."

"Well that's good." She said.

Our conversation was cut short by crash in an alleyway next to us and we stopped. I could hear sobbing coming from within and an angry masculine voice.

I turned towards the alleyway "Twilight, wait here. I'm gonna check it out." I said as I held my hand out to her to stop her from following me.

"If you insist." She said. I knew she wanted to come but she wouldn't be much help in a fight against a stallion in close quarters.

As I went into the alleyway my eyes adjusted and I saw what was going on.

A mare was cornered between a wall and dumpster by a large yellow stallion with brown hair. He looked like an Earth stallion so I knew if worst comes to worst I could take him.

"Now whats it gonna be pretty mare. Are you going to make my bed warm for the night or do I have to convince you some more?" He told her in a threatening tone.

"Please, I don't want to do this, I just want to go home and go to bed."

"Well to bad because I like the looks of you and what I want, I get." He started getting closer to her.

"Well howdy folks. What seems to be the problem here?" I asked him while leaning against the wall and making myself seem much shorter than I really was.

"None of your business. Me and the mare were just working out a deal. Weren't we?" I could see the fear in the mares eyes as she pleaded for me to help her.

"What kind of deal?"

"I said none of your business. Now get out of here before I make you get out of here." He said while turning to me. I had begun getting closer and closer without him noticing and was now right next to him and the mare, who I noticed seemed to be a periwinkle color with blonde hair and messed up eyes. I could see she was a pegasus as well.

I got off of the wall and stood to my full height. I was at least half a foot taller than him and he noticed this.

"What was that about making me." I said as I did my signature knuckle crack.

"Look buddy, I don't want any trouble. If you want the mare take her. I will get out of your mane." He turned to leave but my hand shot out and grabbed the collar of his shirt. I pulled his ear right next to my mouth.

"If I ever hear about you forcing yourself on another mare, I will personally hunt you myself. When I find you I will rip off your dick and balls and force feed them to you for desert. Do I make myself clear?" I whispered to him, low enough that the mare couldn't hear but loud enough for him to clearly hear me.

He gulped and nodded and I let him go. I shot out of the other end of the alleyway.

"Are you alright miss..."

"Derpy is my name. Thank you so much, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't found us. Thank you." She thanked me profusely.

"Don't mention it. Well, have a good night." I said as I turned to leave.

"Wait, you don't want any payment?" She looked confused as I turned back around towards her.

"I don't need payment. I saw a bad thing happening and I stopped it. You don't need to repay me. Besides my friend must be worried about me and I shouldn't keep her waiting. Good night Derpy." I once again turned around to leave but she put a hand on my shoulder.

I turned around and she hugged me tightly.

"Maybe we can do something, sometime. As friends. I live on the southern edge of town in a pink and green house with a blue mailbox. Stop by anytime." I couldn't detect a hint of need or want or lust in her words.

"That would be nice. I might stop over tomorrow if that is okay with you?"

"That's alright with me. I don't have work tomorrow."

"Okay then, well I guess I will see you tomorrow Derpy. Have a good night." I said as I smiled at her.

"You too. Oh, I never got your name."

"Caine." I told her.

"Have a good night Caine."

I nodded in response. I walked out of the alleyway and joined Twilight. I told her what happened and she seemed a little jealous that I was going to go see Derpy tomorrow but said she was happy I had made a friend with another mare.

We walked the rest of the way in silence. I was wondering what Derpy and I were going to do tomorrow while Twilight looked to be in even deeper thought.

When we arrived at the library Twilight started up a new conversation.

"Caine, do you think I could sleep with you again tonight?" She seriously wanted to do it again? Does she not understand I don't want anything to do with most of these ponies. The only one who hadn't done anything inappropriate so far was Derpy.

"No." I told her firmly.

"Please, it's supposed to be really cold tonight and the window in my room is old and can't keep the wind out."

She made a good argument but I didn't want another testosterone induced mishap.

"The answer is still no, Twilight."

"Please Caine. I get really cold at night and you are so warm. Please." I could tell she wasn't going to drop this.

"Fine, but you go to sleep with all of your clothes on. Since it is my bed and because these shorts are extremely uncomfortable while laying down I will be sleeping in my boxers. Is that okay with you?" I wanted to see her reaction to this.

"I am fine with it. Let me just go get changed." She said neutrally.

"Alright."

I followed her upstairs and we went into our respective rooms. I stripped to my boxers and got into bed. I got comfortable and put my back to the rest of the bed. Twilight came in a few minutes later and slipped under the covers. I eventually fell asleep after I heard Twilight's breathing deepen and slow.

I had another dreamless night but I was woken up by a soft moaning. I woke up to find my self spooning Twilight and an intense, moist, heat on my member. I also felt very uncomfortable there like it was bent at the base and between something plush and warm.

I could see Twilight was awake and moving herself. It took a moment before my sleep addled brain registered her movements to the movements on my member, which I realized was fully erect.

Twilight was grinding against me I realized with a start and sudden anger. I could feel her wetness on me and I had to admit it felt good but this was an extreme violation of my trust and my privacy. I was about to yell at her until she started going faster and grabbed my member so she could grind even harder. A few seconds later she shuddered violently and moaned quite loudly one last time as she pushed herself against me and I felt a flood of moisture come over my member which I realized with a start was unclothed and between her legs. I was absolutely pissed now. The only problem was, was that it felt really good. I desperately wanted to finish myself but that would go against everything I told myself that I held dear. I was conflicted between calling her out and attending to my own needs using her for payback. I eventually decided to call her out on it.

"Twilight." I said with force and barely controlled anger. She was panting when I said this and froze.

"C-c-caine, you're awake." She said in slight fear.

"Yeah, I am. Did you just use me to pleasure yourself?" I accused her.

"I am so sorry Caine but you rolled over and I could feel you through my pants. You were so hard and I just lost control. I tried to resist at first but it just felt so good, before I knew it I had teleported our clothes off and started on myself."

"Sorry won't cut it Twilight. You violated my trust and my privacy. I don't think we can be friends after this." I got up to go finish myself off knowing that there was no way in hell that I would go down without either getting blue balled or relieving myself.

Twilight seeing my predicament got an idea. "Caine, I could help you. You could use me like I did with you. Please, I don't want to lose you." She pleaded with me. I could tell that she was desperate at this point.

I walked over to her and stuck myself in her face. She thought I had accepted her offer and went to attend to me but I held her back.

"Twilight. This is my body. You used it for yourself, I am not going to violate you just because you lost control. This right here" I said as I pointed at my member. "Is mine to do with as I please and you went against me. I don't know if I can forgive you. Now I will go fix this problem by myself and spend the rest of the night on the couch. After that I will go to Derpy's. If I can stay with her, I will come pick up my stuff, if I can't I will probably stay with someone else. You have failed in your task Twilight Sparkle and I am disappointed in you." I laid it all out for her, not holding anything back. She had cemented in my mind that mares couldn't be trusted around stallions.

I left a sad Twilight Sparkle on the verge of tears in her guest bed while I went to the bathroom to finish up. It only took a minute or two which I was glad for. I went back into the room to grab a pillow and an extra blanket.

"Caine, please. If you want I could be your mare if this would make everything alright?" She asked with hope in her eyes as she grabbed my arm and pressed her bosom into me.

"No Twilight. I might forgive you some day but today is not it."

"Why do you have to be you Caine? It isn't fair. Every other stallion would take this as a compliment and rut me silly. Why do you have to be the noble one, it just isn't fair."

"Because I am not a stallion, Twilight. I am a human who has morals and values." I said to her while leaving the room. I could hear her start crying as I left the room.

It slightly hurt me to hear her cry. To be honest I did care for Twilight, she took me into her home and wanted to teach me about her world and her culture and wanted to help me succeed in this strange place, all out of the goodness of her heart. She was beautiful, kind, and intelligent. It might have worked if we had known each other longer but we had just met and she had violated me. I knew I couldn't be mad at her forever but she had gone against my wishes. She had succumbed to her baser instincts like a lowly animal and pleasured herself on me. But... she only did it because of her instincts, she grew up in a society that encouraged mares to be blunt about what they wanted. She had held herself back for as long as she could and only succumbed when she felt me through her clothes. Maybe I was being a little hard on her. I wouldn't apologize but I knew that tomorrow night I had to stay somewhere else and then I could return.

I set up my bed on the couch downstairs and once I was done headed back up to comfort Twilight.

I found her sobbing into her knees completely naked on the bed still. I had a perfect view of marehood and I quickly righted my gaze to her head even though that wasn't much better since her bosom was spilling out around her knees.

I put a hand on her shoulder and looked down at her while she looked up at me.

"I felt I was a little hard on you Twilight but I meant what I said. I now know without a doubt that, if given the chance, a mare will attempt to have relations with a stallion. Maybe if we knew each other better it could have worked. I will allow you to try to attempt to change my mind but know that you will have your work cut out for you. If you violate me again I won't hesitate to leave ponyville right then and there. This is your one and only warning Twilight and your only second chance. Don't disappoint me a second time." I told her, with force in my voice telling her I meant business.

She just burst back into tears while jumping up and hugging me fiercely.

"Do you understand?"

"I understand, thank you Caine."

"Now put some clothes on. I don't feel like getting anymore face time with your naked body."

"Okay. Will you still be staying somewhere else?"

"I think it would be a good idea for me to spend tomorrow night somewhere else but I will be back the next day."

"Ok." She said. She let go of me and got under the covers to go to bed while I left to do the same.

I went to the couch and got comfortable and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

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><p><strong>AN: Things are starting to ramp up. Who will win Caine's heart. Hopefully somebody knows cause I still don't. I narrowed it down to three but I am not telling which three. How did I do with the scene? I have no idea so any feed back would be nice even though it is a rather short one. And yes Caine is blunt. My advice for you is: Deal with it. I also don't think I do Pinkie very well which is why I try to leave her out as much as possible. See ya on the flip side.**


	6. Chapter 6: Making friends

**A/N: Okay I know I have been doing this story a lot but I keep finding myself with free time and no way that I want to spend it.**

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><p>I woke up still groggy from having my sleep interrupted last night. I could hear Twilight in the kitchen cooking breakfast.<p>

I got up and walked into the kitchen to see that she was just about done and had two places already set.

"Morning Caine." She said. If she didn't want to acknowledge last night then I wouldn't either.

"Morning Twilight." She finished cooking and made our plates as I sat down.

We ate in silence for the most part.

"After this I am going to head over to Derpy's house."

"Okay. Will you be staying there for the night?" Yet again Twilight looked down-trodden that I was going to be spending time with another mare even though she had no right to be. I still didn't know if Twilight actually liked me or if she was just another horny mare who mistakes her lust for legitiment feelings.

"If she lets me then yes, I will be staying at her house." I stated neutrally.

"Oh, well alright."

We ate the rest of our meals in silence. When I finished I thanked Twilight for breakfast and headed out the door to find Derpy's house.

It took me an hour or two. Not because I was lost but because I had to keep dodging mares. This was the first time that I had been in public without another mare by my side and the others seemed to know this. This was getting really old, really fast. I am going to be really pissed if I have to have a mare at my side whenever I go out in public.

When I eventually made it to Derpy's house she didn't recognize me at first. Apparently she didn't notice that I was the one the party was for and that I was the new alien in town. She wanted to know everything to put it bluntly, so I told her what had happened to me over the course of the past few weeks. When I got to the past few days I was hesitant to say the least. She eventually coaxed me to spill the beans. I told her almost everything up until last night. I then asked her if I could stay the night. This didn't go over well either since she thought that I wanted to sleep with her. I was quick to put those thoughts to rest. I wanted to know I had at least one person I could count on. Even hermits needed to have their contacts.

She wanted to know what brought this about. I told her that I had been staying with Twilight for the past two nights and that I woke up in awkward positions each time. I gave her a summary of what happened last night.

"Well it certainly seems that Twilight has done you a great wrong but you must know something Caine. Mares like Twilight and I, although for different reasons, don't attract stallions too often and usually the ones we go after don't want anything to do with us. So you being kind to Twilight probably made her think that you wanted her, or at the very least her sub-conscious thought this and thought that it would be okay if she was caught doing what she was doing to you. You can't blame her completely for this since not all of the blame is hers, it is our culture's as well." She had a great point. Even though I thought about it last night, hearing it from another mare just confirmed it for me.

"Thanks Derpy, that makes a lot of sense. To be honest, you are much smarter than you look. If you don't mind my asking, how did your eyes end up like that?"

She pondered this for a moment trying to remember what had caused her to become like this "Well to be honest, I was born like this. It wasn't so sever when I was a kid but as I have gotten older I have steadily lost control over my left eye. By now it kind of just does what it wants to. I can see out of it but only if I consciously choose to do so or I close my good eye."

"Is it hard to live like this?" I was starting to feel bad for Derpy. We hadn't just talked about me while I was here, we also had talked about her. She had grown up with two older siblings, both ending up quite succesful while she was held back because of her eye. When she was finally old enough to move out she moved here to ponyville and got the job of the local mailmare. Apparently she had never been with anypony either but that was more due to nobody giving her a second thought instead of actively excluding the opposite gender and she has since come to terms with it. Last night just seemed to be a freak occurence for her.

"No, not really. You get used to it after a while." She looked out the window and noticed the sun was going down.

"I think it is time for bed. Are you going to get your stuff?"

"Yeah I probably should, by the way thank you again for letting me stay here."

"It isn't a problem." She said as she waved off my thanks. I think we had a good shot of being good friends, I could only hope.

"I will be back in a little bit." I said as I got up to leave.

"Okay, just walk in when you get back." She called to me.

"Will do." I called back.

The walk back was much less eventful than the walk there. When I arrived at the library Twilight was nowhere to be found so I used this opportunity to grab my things and leave before I bumped into her. The way back I didn't have any problems either.

I walked into Derpy's house to find that she had already gone to bed. I could hear her deep breathing through her door. There were blankets and a pillow on her couch. I quickly set it up the way I liked and went to bed.

I woke the next morning to Derpy shaking me gently and telling me it was time to get up. When I wouldn't she just pinched my nose which woke me up damn quick.

She had made breakfast for us which consisted of an assortment of delicious muffins. Four of which I inhaled. I spent the next ten minutes praising her for her baking skills which she waved off. We decided to spend the day together after we had gotten showered and ready for the day. We spent most of it going around town and looking at the different things we could do. I was also looking around for any job openings and saw one where I could help fix clocks. I was happy for this since I loved to tinker back home. Derpy and I went in and came out about half an hour later. I had gotten the job and would be starting in two days. To celebrate Derpy took me to the Equestrian equivalent of Starbucks.

The stallion had fronted me a hundred bits as my first paycheck that counted for the rest of the week. I went in to get me a water and Derpy a cup of coffee. When I came out I was not pleased.

Derpy had been sitting at one of the outdoor tables and a group of three mares had gathered around her. I could hear them before they saw me.

"Well look who it is girls, it's the pony chameleon. Why don't you change colors for us, huh? Oh that's right, you are stuck with that ugly periwinkle. So pathetic." The, apparently, lead one said.

"Why do you even dress up? It's not like any stallion would want you, you look like a freak." One of the cronies said.

I didn't give the third one a chance to speak as I walked up to them and set down our drinks. I pulled Derpy out of her chair.

"Hey pretty mama, give daddy some sugar." I said as I twisted and dipped Derpy down and giving her a long kiss.

About a minute later I righted her to see all three mares with looks of horror on their faces mixed with intense jealousy.

"Who are your friends beautiful?" I asked Derpy while wearing a smile and wrapping my arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer to me.

"Oh they were just leaving. Why don't we go home, there are a few things I want to try in private." She said with a sultry tone.

"Lead the way hot stuff." Man was I pushing it with the lingo.

I grabbed our drinks as she walked down the road with her hips swaying.

When we rounded the corner we busted out laughing. When we finally calmed down a few minutes later I had to wipe my eyes.

"I can't believe you did that Caine." Derpy said while giving me a glare that I could see right through. I knew she was grateful for me helping her show those snotty mares up.

"I didn't think you would mind. Those mares were stuck up and needed to be knocked down a few notches." I said with fake hurt.

We started laughing again but not nearly as hard as the first time.

"Thank you though. Those mares have been hassling me for quite a while and it was nice to get the drop on them for a change."

"Don't mention it. Friends help friends, plain and simple." We were almost back to her house by now. Again a whole day had passed in what felt like just a few short hours.

"Well I guess this is good night. Twilight is probably getting worried. I said I would be back around noon today." I said with reluctance. I didn't want to be away from my only true friend that I had made since coming here.

"You could stay the night again if you want." She could tell I didn't want to leave.

"I think that would be good but I do still need to tell Twilight. I don't want her getting worked up. I will be back in about half an hour."

"Alright. Be careful." She said with concern in her voice.

"I will be." I called back to her as I was walking away.

I made it to Twilight's house a few minutes later. I went inside and found her on the couch writing on a scroll.

"Hey Twilight." I startled her while she was writing.

"Oh Caine, it's just you. You scared me half to death you jerk." She said with a slightly angry tone.

"I think that would have happened either way with you being so into that scroll you were writing on."

"Moving on, are you back?"

"I will be spending the night at Derpy's again." She seemed to get a look of extreme annoyance flash across her face when I said this.

"Why?" She asked with warning in her voice.

"Because I want to spend the night again. I had a really good time with her today."

Twilight's shoulders slumped a little at this. God damn, does everything depress this girl or is it just me?

"Twilight you ruined your chance and you know that. If you wanted to be my mare you should have gone about it a different way. I am not even certain that I want a marefriend as of yet, considering how difficult that will be. If I do get one then other mares will think that I am open for business. It will take weeks for the word to spread around that I am a one mare kind of guy."

"Please Caine. You are the perfect stallion. You are considerate, respectful, protective, and kind when you need to be. Please, give me one more chance to show you I am not like those other mares. I can prove to you I am not like them." She pleaded with me.

"I will think on it Twilight." I said giving her a stern glare telling her to drop it for now.

"I will see you tomorrow. Good night."

"Good night Caine." She said with a sigh.

I walked out of the library and headed back to Derpy's. When I got there I walked in and found her reading a magazine while drinking some milk.

"Hey Derpy." I called to her.

"Hello Caine. How did it go?" She asked me as I sat down.

"It was okay. Twilight wants to show me that she is not like other mares and I don't know whether to give her a chance or not."

"I think you should. She obviously wants you as hers and I can tell you like her. It is not often that a mutual attraction occurs between a mare and a stallion these days."

"You are wise far beyond your years. I guess I will give her a shot. It is good having a friend like you that I can talk to."

"Yeah, a friend." She mumbled to her self in a sad tone, quietly enough for me not to hear.

After that we talked a little while longer before going to bed. It was getting steadily colder outside and Derpy offered me to sleep in her bed with her. I was wary but was sure she wouldn't try anything so I allowed it. We got into bed with me in just my shorts (didn't want to take chances) and her in sweats. I could see now why she wanted us to bunk together, her room was like a fridge and her central heating was broken.

I fell asleep a few minutes after crawling into bed and for the first time since I came here, had a decent nights sleep with no surprises or uncomfortableness.

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><p><strong>AN: I think I know who I want to be the love interest but am not 100% sure. It is between two mares, who you could probably guess. I have part of the next chapter mapped out already but have to type an essay tomorrow so I probably won't post a chapter. See ya on the flip side.**


	7. Chapter 7: Regular Tuesday, Right?

**A/N: To help me keep track of the timeline I will be labeling what day it is. This chapter also gets a little steamy. You have been warned.**

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><p><strong>Tuesday<strong>

I woke up the next morning to an empty bed. Apparently Derpy was an early riser. I got out of bed and got dressed and went to go find her. Instead I found a note on the kitchen table telling me she had gone to work early since she had missed a day and also said to help myself to a muffin that she had baked this morning.

After I was done with that I straightened up the kitchen and made the bed before I left. I decided to go to Twilights and try to get some more chopping done.

On my way I seemed to be getting even more looks from the mares then ever before. This was really starting to scare me. I didn't know how far they would go but I really didn't want to be gang-banged in public. I hurried up to Twilights and didn't even bother knocking.

"Morning Twilight." I had found her at her work station writing another scroll. Luckily I didn't startle her this time as she had heard the door open.

"Good morning Caine. What are you doing here, aren't you going to hang out with Derpy?" She asked while turning around to face me.

"No she had to work today. Oh and I forgot to tell you last night, I got a job at the local clock smith and will be starting tomorrow." I said as I plopped myself down on the couch.

"That's great!... So I was wondering-"

"About what I said last night?" She nodded her head in response.

"I thought about it and was dead set on not giving you a chance." I told her. She sagged her shoulders and started to turn away until I continued "But, Derpy convinced me otherwise. We can go on a date of your destination and time." She visibly perked up at this.

"Oh thank you Caine. I was so worried all night about what your answer was going to be. I actually do have a place in mind."

"What is it?"

"You remember that place we went to for breakfast?"

"You want to go there?"

"Yeah, they are one of the classiest places in all of ponyville." She said with excitement.

"If you say so. When do you want to go?"

"We could go tonight, maybe." She answered a little sheepishly.

"I don't have anything to wear for a classy date Twilight."

"Oh that is fine, we can have Rarity make a suit for you. Didn't the clock smith forward you your first payment?"

"He did. I guess so. I will go get a suit made then." I got up to leave but I wasn't more than three steps from the door when I felt Twilight's arms around me.

"Thank you for giving me this chance Caine."

"Just...don't mess it up. Okay?"

I felt her head nod in response.

I walked out the door and started thinking about how it would go.

To be honest with myself, I wanted it to go well. I had forgiven Twilight already but I didn't want her to know that. I want her to know that what she did was wrong and that my feelings for her won't always cloud my judgement. She was the woman of my dreams to be perfectly honest. She was everything I wanted in a woman, except a cook. Oh man I wish she could cook because I can't cook worth a damn and I don't want to have to go out every night.

I made my way to the Carousel Boutique and entered, hearing the bell above the door jingle.

"I will be with you in one minute darling!" I heard Rarity call from the back room.

A few minutes later she came out.

"Oh, hello Caine. I said your new wardrobe would be ready by the end of the week did I not?" She asked with confusion.

"You did but I need a special request. I have a date tonight and I need a suit."

"You...have a...date? With whom?" She said with shock and sadness.

"Twilight. Some things went down and this is her last chance to make me see mares in a different light."

"What happened?" She seemed more curious than sad at the moment.

"Lets just say Twilight got much farther than you did only without my permission to do so."

Rarity seemed to fly through a slew of emotions when I told her this. I could only pick up a few of the more obvious ones like anger and incomprehension. Eventually she just dropped it.

"Well I already have your measurements but I am afraid I will need payment for this Darling."

"Not a problem. Take what you need out of this." I said as I tossed my money pouch to her which she deftly snatched out of the air with her magic. She looked through it and started counting the bits and took out what appeared to be 15 pieces. She floated my pouch back to me which I tied to a special loop on my shorts.

"That is enough I presume?"

"Yes it is. What time is your date with Twilight?" She said as she headed into the back room with me behind her.

"Sometime later tonight." I told her as she lit up her horn and several pieces of cloth as well.

"Well that sounds splendid darling. Come back before your date to pick it up. May I ask, why Twilight?"

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked. I wanted to tell someone and Rarity would have to do for now.

"Of course dear."

"Twilight might be my dream girl. She is beautiful, intelligent, and kind among other things. She wants to show me so badly what her world has to offer and she tries to control herself in a respectable manner, usually. She has almost everything I could ever hope to find in a special somepony." I stated. Man I was a sap, even though it was true. I didn't love Twilight yet but I did care for her, it would take some time before I loved anybody in any other way besides platonic love and even that was a stretch.

"Well Twilight certainly seems to have gotten her hooks into quite the stallion." Rarity said with jealousy clear in her voice.

"She doesn't have me yet Rares. She did violate me and if I can't trust her then I definitely won't date her." I said to appease her which seemed to do the trick.

"Well if things don't work out between you and Twilight then maybe you could give us a shot?" She asked, hopeful.

"Sorry Rares but you just don't seem like my type nor I, yours."

"Oh, really?"

"Sorry but that is the truth. You are gorgeous but you are not the one for me. I think it is time I left. Do you know where the post office is?" I wanted to deflect attention away from our relational status.

"It is across the street from sugar cube corner, why?"

"I have a friend who works there and I want to visit her." I said as I got up to leave.

"Thanks for your help Rarity." I called back to her as I exited her shop.

I walked to sugar cube corner in record time, crazy horny mares giving me the 'I wanna rut you silly' looks and creeping me the hell out, and found the post office soon afterwards and headed inside.

I found Derpy just about to leave with a sack.

"Hey Derpy, hows the mail going?"

"It's going good, this is my last bag for the day. Surprisingly there wasn't much yesterday so now I am getting off earlier then usual because I came in so early." She said with a proud smile.

"Sweet, mind if I walk with you?" I asked as we exited the building.

"Sorry Caine but you don't have what I do." She said as she flared out her wings.

"I should be done within the hour. Head over to my place and relax until I get home if you want to talk."

"Ok, see ya later then." I said as we parted, her flying up in the air and me heading over to her place.

I decided to take a shortcut that ended in a dead end. That's what I get for taking a shortcut in a town that I barely know.

I was about to turn around when I heard a voice from behind me.

"Hey stallion, we want to talk to you." Yelled the voice, which sounded familiar and awakened anger within me.

I turned around and came face to face with the three mares from yesterday.

"About what?" I asked. The lead one was a deep orange with a purple mane while the crony on her left was a baby blue unicorn with scarlet hair and the one on her right was happy yellow with a green mane.

"You and Derpy. We want to know why you chose her." She said as she walked towards me backing me into the wall and getting right in my face, though she had to stand on her tip toes and only barely reached me.

"I chose her because she is kind, gentle, and intelligent as well as beautiful." I stated.

"Don't you know that just about any other mare in town can satisfy you better than she can." She told me, completely missing the point of why I would choose Derpy.

"And how would I know that, every other mare has tried to come onto me since I got here except Derpy, she let me take things at my own pace."

"Don't you know that we could pleasure you so well that your brain would melt." It's like we are having two entirely different conversations.

"I don't want pleasure from you." I stated firmly.

Instead of taking a hint she grabbed my crotch and started stroking it.

"Do you like that big boy?" I assumed it was rhetorical because I was getting hard under her hand.

I tried pushing her away and when I finally succeeded she flipped out a little bit.

"Rosebush secure his hands and lay him on the ground." She said to unicorn.

Suddenly I was enveloped in a blue aura and was flipped and laid down on the dirt road of the alleyway.

"We are gonna show you a good time stallion. And afterwards you'll thank us for it." She said with a sultry tone while the other two eyed me with lust.

She got down and started rubbing me while the unicorn kept up her magic, holding me down so I couldn't move my hands or my feet.

Eventually she got bored with my shorts and pulled them down along with my boxers letting my member pop out, now fully erect in anticipation. Damn you brain you horny bastard.

She started sucking on me, I tried to fight it but it felt spectacular. I was already reaching climax in minutes. I decided not to tell her to give her a little surprise. She kept going and then hilted me and I climaxed sending rope after rope down her throat. Before my little session with Twilight I hadn't came or had a wet dream in over six months so I was filled to the brim.

After a few seconds I finally stopped and she pulled away panting.

"Been saving up haven't we."

"Screw off." Was my reply.

She either decided to ignore me or just didn't hear me. I could see her friends in the background working on themselves and could see their wetness through their pants.

The leader called over the other Earth mare and told her to give me her special. She, by far, had the biggest breasts out of all of them and I was pretty sure I knew what she was going to do. She was at least an E.

Sure enough she unbuttoned her shirt and bra. Getting my member between her ample breasts she started pumping while giving my head little licks here and there. If anything this felt better than the blowjob. I climaxed again in minutes. These mares were right, they were pleasuring me beyond anything that I could do by myself.

What I didn't notice in the background while I was getting a boob job was that the leader had taken off all of her clothes and was now stark naked. When I realized this I started struggling knowing what she wanted. I could see that she was as wet as a waterfall right now.

She walked over to me seductively and positioned herself above me. Just before she could impale herself on me she started glowing a deep purple and was flung from me. I looked at the entrance to the alley to see a very pissed off Twilight Sparkle with a horn as bright as the sun.

She quickly dispelled the bonds holding my hands and feet in place while at the same time encapsulating the unicorn and other earth mare in bubbles and sending them flying. She then turned her attention to me and I felt a sudden flash and before I knew it I was completely cleaned up, flacid, and dressed much to my relief. She eyed the leader.

"You ever try to do something like that EVER again, so help me Celestia I will rip out your ovaries and force feed them to you for breakfast." Well that was wierd.

"I am so sorry Twilight Sparkle, we didn't know this stallion was under your watch. If we had known we would never have done such a thing. Please forgive us." She groveled at Twilight's feet.

"I don't ever want to see your face again." She stated with barely supressed anger. The mare ran out of the alleyway still naked giving everypony who was outside a great show.

"Thank you Twilight." I told her.

She ran over and hugged me which I gladly returned. I heard a pop and noticed we were back in the library.

"I would understand if you didn't want to go out tonight Caine." She said sadly, all anger gone.

"I am glad you do but we are still going, I don't care if the world ends. I said we would go on a date of the time and destination of your choosing and you chose tonight." I said with a determined smile.

"But you almost got raped by three mares in an alleyway, don't you want time to sort through this?" She asked as she grabbed my shirt and searched my face for any sign of doubt.

"Key word is almost. I actually feel pretty good right now. I guess it is good to get a release without you putting in any effort. I said we would go out tonight and we are going out tonight."

She hugged me at my response with tears in her eyes. Damn this girl needs to get her emotions in check.

"Thank you Caine. That means a lot to me."

"Okay hot stuff, it is almost time. Go get ready and I will go change into my suit." I said with a playful smile.

"Hot stuff?" She questioned with a smile of her own.

"Don't judge me."

"Your words not mine." She said as she turned around to head upstairs. I left after she finished walking up them, thinking to myself that I might actually enjoy this night.

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><p><strong>AN: I just know somebody is going to get pissy about the rape but calm your tits. Caine doesn't mind nor does anyone else. He see's it as a forgive and forget situation, so deal with it. Next chapter will be the date. See ya on the flip side.**


	8. Chapter 8: Drinking and Subtle Reveals

**Tuesday night**

"Ow, Rarity that hurts stop, ow, stop poking me with needles. Owwww!" She had been fixing up my suit for the past half an hour and it would still be another half hour before I had to meet up with Twilight. The last pin had stuck me right in my shoulder and scraped the bone.

"I'm sorry Darling but I just want this night to go absolutely perfect for you and Twilight. If I can't have you I am pleased to know that it took Twilight Sparkle herself to steal you away from me." She said as her tongue was stuck out to the side of her mouth in concentration. She was using her hands to fix up the suit instead of her magic because she said it was easier this way. Too bad she meant for her and not me, I was going to have pinpricks for the next few weeks all across my body.

She had gone into denial about me not accepting her for some reason and I just let her think that. At least this way it wouldn't be as awkward between us and I got a skilled and knowledgable fashionista who was more then happy to take care of all my clothing needs, so long as I paid her, but still it was sweet.

"Are you almost done Rares? I'm starting to grow weak from blood loss and my joints are starting to ache from posing like this for the past half hour."

"Almost done darling, just need to touch up the shouldeeer aaaand viola! All done."

I put my arms down and turned to look at myself in her full body mirror. Damn did I look good in a tux.

"Simply smashing, darling." I said as I quoted my favorite cartoon dad.

"You really like it?" Rarity asked.

"Love it Rares. It's perfect." I told her.

I saw her come up and put her arms around me.

"Twilight is one lucky mare to have you." Rarity said a little dreamily.

"She doesn't have me yet Rares. I want to see how this date goes before I decide anything."

I heard a knocking from the front door and Rarity went to go open it. A few seconds later I heard Rarity call my name.

I walked into the front room and over to Rarity by the front door.

"What is it Rarity?" I asked, curious.

"Derpy would like to talk with you." Rarity told me. I thought I heard a bit of anger in her voice but dismissed it as a trick of the mind. Rarity left to allow us some privacy.

"Hey Derpy, what are you doing here?" I asked as I leaned against the door frame.

"I just wanted to see what you looked like in tux." She said as she studied my form, moving her eyes up and down.

"Eh, seen better."

I scoffed at her and held my hand to my head in a dramatic fashion.

"I will have you know miss, that the talented Rarity made me her own personal pin cushion to get this marvelous suit just right." I said with fake indignancy.

"Calm down stallion. I actually came here to tell you something. When I heard that you were going on a date with Twilight I wanted to tell you how I felt. I like..." She paused.

"Yes Derpy?" I rolled my hand to try to get her to say it.

"I like...**sigh** that you found a mare." She said a little dejectedly with a hint of anger, I had no idea why.

"Aren't you happy for me. Right now you're my best friend. I thought if anypony would be happy for me it would be you, especially since the only reason this is happening is _because_ of you." I said with a slightly angry tone thinking that she was mocking me for something or, for some reason, she didn't want me to go out with Twilight.

"You just don't get it, do you?!" She spat back at me, angry now herself.

"If I did something wrong tell me what it is. I don't feel like going out knowing that you're mad at me for something without me knowing what it is." I shot back.

"Figure it out yourself. Maybe you'll learn something along the way, thick-skull." She growled at me while knocking on my forehead twice for effect. Before I could retort she turned on her heel and walked off into the night.

"Derpy!" I called to her. She didn't answer.

"My my, what was that all about?" Rarity asked as she returned, hearing the commotion.

"I have no idea. One second she seems like she wants to tell me something and when she does it sounded like she was mocking me for something. Then when I called her out on it she told me I didn't get it. I asked her to tell me but she just called me a thick-skull and left without another word."

"Oh my." Rarity exclaimed.

"What, do you know what's going on?" I turned to her, almost desperate for answers.

"I think this is something that you have to figure out on your own Caine. I will go after Derpy for you, you just worry about having a good time. Don't let this little mishap ruin tonights mood for both your, and Twilight's, sake." She told me as she rushed out the door in Derpy's direction.

I looked at the clock and noticed it was almost time to go. I decided to spend the next few minutes clearing my mind. It worked but not completely. At least I think I could enjoy myself with Twilight this evening. I picked up the carnation and my bag of bits and headed out.

I arrived at the library a few minutes later and on time, thankfully.

**Knock knock knock**

"Hold on a second, I will be there in a minute." I heard a raspy, yet familiar, voice yell to me. A few moments later the door opened and I came face to face, well chest to face due to my height, with the rainbow haired girl from the party. I was pretty sure her name was Rainbow Dash.

"Uh, hi...Rainbow Dash. Is Twilight ready?" I asked, a little nervous as this was one of my first dates in the past decade.

"She will be down in a minute, why don't you come in and rest until she decides to join us?" I nodded and she made room for me to enter. I stood in the center of the room not wanting to get my suit dirty or wrinkly.

Twilight came down moments after I had arrived. To be honest my jaw dropped.

She was wearing a purple dress, the same shade as her hair, which hugged her body beautifully and expertly showed off every tantalizing curve while still leaving a lot of things to the imagination. She had on a necklace with a six pointed star on it with matching earings. Her hair was combed in such a way that it looked almost like Celestia's when any amount of wind blew through it.

Rainbow closed my mouth for me and gave me a little slap to snap me out of it. Twilight walked up to me and I did a deep and elegant bow while extending my arm out with the carnation in it.

"For you, my lady." I said as she giggled and took the carnation and placed it on, right above her left breast.

"After you sir stallion." She said as she gestured towards the door. I stuck my arm out and she put hers through. We bid ado to Rainbow and headed towards the restaurant in silence.

When we arrived the waiter seated us almost immediately and gave us some menus.

I decided to order a regular steak. I also asked the waiter how much a decent bottle of wine was and thankfully it was in my price range. Bits seemed to be horribly disproportioned. A bushel of apples could cost as little as two while a good thing of wine might cost thirty, or in my case twenty-eight. While in dollars the gap could be ten times that if at the right restaurant.

Twilight ordered a simple salad and a water. The waiter left and returned momentarily with the wine I had requested along with wine glasses.

"Wine Caine? If you wanted me so bad all you had to do was ask." She playfully jested.

I chuckled a bit before responding "This isn't to get you into bed, drunk, it's to get me into bed, drunk, my sweet mare." I jested right back.

I had called her on her bluff and she blushed profusely. We still had time to kill before our food was done.

"So, how have things been going between you and Derpy?" Seriously, the one thing I didn't want to talk about is the first thing she brings up, damn you probability and your stacks always being against me at the most inconvenient times!

"I don't really want to talk about that right now." I said sadly as I remembered our conversation from earlier.

"You sure?" I nodded in response and thankfully she dropped it.

"So I have been hearing about this Spike character here and there. Who exactly was he to you: Friend, _good _friend, slave, or somewhere along the lines of sibling?"

She almost choked on her wine when I said the second one.

"Oh no no no no no. I had to hatch Spike from an egg to get into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. On the day I took the test an explosion startled me and I went into some wierd hyper state and transformed everything in the room along with hatching spike. After that, and when I became old enough, he lived with me until about two years ago. After that he set off in search of others of his kind to teach him the ways of his kind. Or at least better ways considering what happened last time. Before you ask, I don't want to talk about it."

I patted her on the shoulder to try to cheer her up. "It's alright Twilight. I am sure he will visit soon." I told her before I took another sip of my wine.

After this the waiter brought our orders and we dug in. Like last time I tore through mine while Twilight simply stabbed lightly and ate what ever she could get on her fork. We were done in about fifteen minutes. I called the waiter over and he gave me the bill. Surprisingly it was only 67 bits total. Which left me with about eight bits left for the rest of the week. Good thing I had to go to work tomorrow. Oh shit. I realized with a start. I have to go to work tomorrow, in a clock shop, with a hangover. Fuck my life right now. I can't go one day without something bad happening to me here.

As Twilight and I walked out of the restaurant I could tell that she was slammed. She had like six glasses of wine. I was actually surprised she could still stand let alone walk, I had her pegged for a lightweight. Though she still was legally drunk and I would have to be careful around her. I had a slight buzz but nothing too bad.

When we finally staggered back to the library I opened the door. I was fed up with having Twilight shuffle along next to me so I picked her up bridal style and brought her to her room.

"Hey Caine **hic** wanna have some fun to-**hic **tonight?" She asked before she crushed her lips against mine in a sloppy drunken kiss. I really wanted to stay but I knew that, that was just the wine talking.

When I had lain Twilight on her bed she had instantly fallen asleep. I was conflicted about getting her comfortable and leaving her. I didn't want to invade her privacy but I knew she wouldn't like it if she woke up in a tattered dress. I decided to just go with it. It isn't like I haven't been given the full show already.

It was pain stakingly slow. Twilight didn't weigh a lot but her horn had a nasty habit of stabbing me and on more than one occasion I had accidentally knee'd myself with her.

About half an hour later Twilight was in her pyjamas and her dress and jewelry were hanging in the closet and on her night stand, respectively. Sometimes I wished I had magic but usually I liked being an earth stallion.

After making sure she didn't accidentally choke to death I went to my room and took off my own apparel and just fell down onto the bed in nothing but boxers and dress socks.

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><p><strong>AN: How did you guys like this chapter. It wasn't all smoochy smoochy like you would expect but I know a lot of dates aren't pure romance. This was one of those dates. I am still conflicted on who exactly I want to be the love interest but I do have a plan of action planned out for the next few days instory that won't have Caine lean towards Twilight or Derpy anymore then he should. But once I get to the end of the week instory or maybe the end of the week after this one, instory, I will make my decision. See ya on the flip side.**


	9. Chapter 9: New course of action

**A/N: I know it's a short chapter, deal with it. I made it the length I needed it.**

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><p><strong>Wednesday<strong>

I woke up with a slight hangover the next morning but wasn't cold surprisingly. Twilight had come in to my room to wake me up for work at around half past nine and said that my room was colder than hers and she had a broken window.

I just waved it off. I have always had a high tolerance for cold, many a time going to school in shorts and a T-shirt on days where it was below fifty. I was also very glad when she told me that she could perform a spell to lessen hangovers and with my simple one, eradicate it.

I got up and went to the shower and washed up. I came out about twenty minutes later and went down stairs. Twilight had made me breakfast for my first day at work. We ate in silence and I left at around ten to.

I arrived at the clock shop just before ten and walked inside.

"Hey boy. Cutting it a little close on your first day aren't we?" Asked my boss. He was a large, grey, Earth stallion with white hair and a slight beard. Before I had met him I didn't even know that ponies could get beards. I really needed a shaving kit, I myself was starting to sport a decent beard about an inch long.

"Sorry, got a little drunk last night on a date."

"Not a problem boy. Let me show you around the shop and your personal bench." He said while gesturing me to follow him.

We went through a door to a back room filled with dozens of tools on corkboard walls with one entire, seemingly, singular work bench wrapping around the walls of the room with random stools and lamps everywhere. The room was about twenty by twenty feet.

He gestured around the room "This... is your workbench."

"The whole thing?" I asked dumb struck

"Yup, but try to keep the projects you are working on from building up and cluttering the entire thing. I have to make the clocks remember? You just fix em. Every tool you could ever need to fix a clock, and many other things, is in here. I will also be giving you a key to the store when I trust you enough so that, if need be, you can use any of the tools here for personal projects. You will be payed twenty bits everyday you come in but I won't be paying ya nothing till you work off the advance. I would prefer it if you came in on Mondays since that is my busiest day, ponies seem to break their clocks a lot on the weekends. We aren't open on the weekends and you can come in any day you want to work. But if you only come in two days one week I expect you to make it up by coming in for four the next. Eventually I will teach you to man the front while I am out-of-town or in the back working on something that needs to be done. There are schematics for every type of clock in Ponyville on the bottom tables of the workbench. They are organized alphabetically and I would prefer to keep them that way. If you need help identifying what type a clock is and come to me and I can tell you. You got all that boy?"

I just nodded.

"Good now get to work. We have fourteen clocks that need repairing and I want at least three of them done today."

I just nodded again. He left to go man the front. I spent the rest of the day, till about five-thirty, repairing the clocks. I was glad there were only about sixteen different types of clocks, so that made finding the right schematic fairly easy.

It actually was pretty hard to repair clocks. The first one I tried to fix had a gear out-of-place. I thought that this would be a breeze, until I found out that it became out of place because another gear had pushed it because a third gear had been rattled and moved. It took me half an hour to figure out why the gear wouldn't shift back into place and another ten minutes of trying to get the faulty gear out. It took me about fifteen minutes to finish repairing the clock.

The second needed some new springs put in and those little shits were tiny. They were like ants and my fingers had a very hard time picking them up, I had to resort to using tweezers which just made it all the harder. If I had three hands I would have been fine but I eventually had to use my knee, almost breaking the damned thing completely in the process. All in all that took me about an hour and a half.

The third one pissed me off the most. In multiple places gears, springs, and other mechanisms were either broke, out of place, or missing completely. I basically had to make a new one in the shell of the old. This altogether took three hours.

I had started on a fourth but only got about half way done replacing the outer plating when I heard my boss call and tell me it was time to go home. I was ecstatic, I knew I would eventually come to like this job but today just sucked.

I left after saying goodbye to my boss and headed towards Rarity's. I wanted to know what happened between her and Derpy. I eventually arrived and went in.

The bell chimed and I heard Rarity say that she was closed for the day.

"Rarity, it's Caine! I need to talk to you!" I yelled to her.

She came down a few minutes later.

"Hello darling, what did you want to talk about?" I knew she was playing ignorant.

"Cut the act Rares, you know what I want to talk about." I told her.

"Alright fine, follow me." She said as she started walking towards her living room. We sat down on the couch and got comfortable.

"Derpy is...how do I say this... distraught, yes that's an adequate word." She told me.

"Why? What did I do to her that made her like this?" I was worried about her, she took a lot of things in stride, even her almost getting raped she brushed off like it was nothing.

"She would prefer me not to tell you. All I can say is that it isn't something thing you did to her, but something you did with somepony else."

"What? That doesn't even make any sense. What I did _with_ somepony else?"

"Oh Caine, you really are dense, aren't you?"

"People say I am." She raised her brow at this but then realized what I meant by people.

"Just go talk to her, and don't argue. It will just make things all the harder on you both." She told me. I could tell from her tone of voice that it was more of a demand instead of a suggestion.

"Alright. Wish me luck Rares."

"Good luck Caine. And please don't make her anymore upset with you then she already is."

"I'll try." I told her as I walked out of her living room and out of the boutique.

I started my walk to Derpy's house and arrived a few minutes later and knocked.

"Coming, just a sec." I heard her call through the door.

A few minutes later she opened the door to reveal myself. Her expression went from one of happiness to one of sadness and irritation.

"We need to talk." I told her, cutting to the chase.

"Have you figured it out yet?" She asked without her expression changing.

"No, I haven't. And I don't think I ever will. You know by now that I don't pick up on things Derpy. If something is bothering you the only way I am going to know is if you or someone else tells me directly or if you do something that clearly communicates your m-" I was cut off as she reached out to me and kissed me on my lips. After a few seconds she disengaged with a frown and closed her door on me.

I held my hands up to my lips in shock that my most recent best friend had just kissed me. I didn't know what to do and I didn't know how to handle this. No matter how much this society said I could have both Twilight and Derpy, all three of us knew that I would only pick one and now I wasn't so sure I wanted Twilight. I wanted Derpy just as much now.

I staggered off while the sun was going down, thinking about what to do and how to address this.

My train of thoughts eventually left me with one conclusion: My original plan would save both the girls and myself from heartache.

I needed to leave Ponyville.


	10. Chapter 10: Clash of the Mares

**Saturday (Three days later)**

Three days had passed since I had decided to leave Ponyville. I hadn't completely left town as I still needed bits but no pony besides my boss knew I was still here.

I had left Ponyville and encountered a pink barrier at the border of town that I hadn't seen before. It stretched upward in an arc towards the center of town and, as far as I could tell, was spherical in nature since when I dug below the ground it was also there.

When I had stepped out I went to the least dense part of the woods I could find and had set up a decent living space. During that same night I had heard what appeared to be tribal music coming from somewhere off into the forest.

I had gone to check it out and had found a hut and within it a weird looking pony.

When I introduced myself she did the same and we sat down and talked for much of the night.

Her name was Zecora and she had on quite the jewelry. It looked African in origin, and she said she was a Zebra which I believed completely since she was the first pony I had met with two different colors for skin which also looked like Zebra print. She also wore a brown cloth band around her bosom and what looked to be a loincloth.

She seemed very trustworthy and I ended up telling her everything. She tried to get me to make a decision about this and pointed out many times that I could have both Twilight and Derpy if I really wanted. But each and every time I told her the same thing 'I can't have both, where I come from forbids it and I hold that in high regard. I just can't.'. She then pointed out to me that I would still need bits and that it would be hard finding a job somewhere else with the way I looked. Ponies wouldn't trust me enough to hire me. She had a point and I decided to stay as long as possible to make some bits. She also had offered to house me as long as I helped her with her brewing and other, around the house, jobs. I agreed and I have been living there ever since.

The day after that I had gone into work and explained everything to my boss. Surprisingly, he knew exactly what it felt like to be torn between two mares. He had gone through the same thing I did when he was in his prime. I had asked him if he could give me some advice and he told me that 'I would know, when I knew' the cryptic bastard. I freaking hate symbolistic crap. He told me that running away wouldn't help anypony but I was adamant and he eventually let it go and promised he wouldn't tell anypony that I was here.

The rest of the time saw me dodging everypony, which wasn't easy considering I was pretty sure I was the tallest creature in town but I was pretty sure no pony had seen me.

It was the end of the day and I had just gotten off of work. I was headed to the barrier so I could go back to Zecora's.

When I got there I quickly slipped through, careful to make sure I didn't make any ripples, and continued onward.

The path to Zecora's was a long one and very complicated. I got lost a few times but made my way back eventually.

At the moment I was lost once again and trying to find my way back.

"This is getting ridiculous." I said out loud, getting frustrated at having to backtrack so much.

After I said this I heard a rustle coming from some large bushes.

"Hello? Is anypony there." I said with force, I wasn't some little pansy. I could defend myself.

"Oh it's just me." I heard a very feminine voice say as a mare stepped out of the bushes.

She was taller than the average mare, coming up to my chin. She had on tribal undergarments like the ones Zecora had only these blended into her skin somewhat, all of which was a sea-green. Her hair was the color the sky and her eyes were red. If I dare say it, she might have been more objectively beautiful than Celestia herself.

"You wouldn't hurt a defenseless mare now, would you?" She asked as she walked nearer.

"No, but keep getting closer to me and I might change my mind." I threatened her. I didn't want to deal with anymore crap for today.

"Oh but you are so big and so strong. It would hardly be a fair fight" Her voice seemed to go from seductive to high-pitched and fast yet quiet throughout her sentences but not in annoying way, to be honest it was almost hypnotic. Too bad I was done with mares from now on. I don't want to repeat what happened earlier. I don't think I could handle it. (A/N: Basically, think of moaning myrtle from harry potter just more seductive and grown up)

"You're right it wouldn't. Now leave me alone, I want to go home and to bed." I told her as I started walking away.

"You wouldn't leave me out here all alone would you?" She asked, using that voice girls use to get guys to do whatever they want them to do.

"Absolutely." I called back to her.

"Please I'm lost. I just want to get back to Ponyville." She begged as she jogged over to me and grabbed my arm.

"No. A mare like you would have been dead already, no matter how long you have been here. Your clothes are in slight tatters and your hair is tangled. You have been out here for a while and have been just fine, now leave me alone. You don't need my help." I said as I ripped my arm free and continued onward.

"So we are going to do this the hard way aren't we?" She said in a cute little voice.

"_We're _not doing anything. _I_ am going home and _you _are going to leave me the hell alone." I told her.

"I don't think so stallion." She said, dropping all the natural feminine charm from her voice to reveal a stern one.

"The hell you mean?" I was starting to get pissed. If I don't get home in the next few minutes, I'm going to fuck something up.

"This." She said as she lunged at me with speed no creature like her should be able to achieve from rest.

She forced her lips to mine in a passionate kiss. I tried to fight it but I felt my consciousness slipping away. Whatever she was doing was messing with my mind. I tried to fight it but I couldn't and I soon lost feeling in my body.

I woke up in some sort of domed room. The walls were pink with red lines in them and there were two large TV's on one part of it.

"Where am I?" I asked to no one in particular.

Just then the mare from before materialized her back to me.

"Ah. Another mind destroyed and another body claimed. This one is so nice, I think I might make it my permanent mate." She said to herself in a giddy voice.

"Permanent mate my ass. Get me out of here and back in my body or so help me you won't take another step for as long as you live." I was sick and tired of shit like this happening to me on a daily basis since I had arrived. Almost everyday something had happened and I was fed up.

This startled her a great deal and she look like she was about to crap herself.

"What are you doing here? You should be gone. This place should be empty!" She yelled at me. At first in fear and then gradually in anger.

"I don't know. You kissed me and I woke up here." I told her. I whispered slut under my breath.

"I heard that." She stated. This startled me but I don't care at this point.

"You know what, I don't care anymore. So fuck you." I surprised myself at this line. I had never actually told anyone to fuck off before.

"Not in here we can't stallion. But either way, now that I think about it, you don't have control anymore. I do. And I can see that you are no ordinary stallion. You are so much more, destined for so much more. And with my power I can forgo the trials you must take to receive your full potential and unlock them myself. You will be the strongest warrior in Equestria and with you I can take over and steal the crown from that meager Celestia and traitorous Luna. I thank you for this opportunity. I just now thought of it. Goodbye for now." She told me and waved as she disappeared.

"Get back here you bitch!" I screeched. I was fuming now and I won't be held responsible for what I am going to do to her next time I see her.

**Twilight's POV**

I was heading towards Derpy's house. Caine had been missing for the past few days and I had stopped by Rarity's to see if she had seen him. She had told me she had sent him to Derpy's so they could resolve their issues.

I was pretty sure I knew why Caine would be at Derpy's. They had grown close since they had met almost a week ago and I was pretty sure she liked him. I knew that Caine was uncomfortable with a stallion having multiple mares and so I knew that if he didn't choose me I wouldn't get him at all. I cared for him to much and worked too hard to have him stolen away by Derpy. He was one of the only stallions, besides my brother and father, that treated me with any respect and I wanted to make him happy. I might even want to have his foals _with_ him instead of for myself. That might be the jealousy talking and I knew this. Jealousy was a weird emotion. Very few ponies experienced it the way I was. Not many mares could lose a stallion to another in this day and age. Usually if a mare wanted in, all she had to do was pass the test given by the stallion's sister and she would be in, piece of cake. But this, this was different. Caine would only choose one and I wanted that to be me.

I arrived at Derpy's and banged on the door.

"One second, calm down. I can only go so fast." She replied.

I crossed my arms and put my weight on my left hoof waiting for her.

She opened the door with a smile that faltered for just a second when she saw me.

"May I help you Twilight?" She asked innocently.

"Where is Caine? Rarity said you were the last to see him before night rolled around." I asked her.

"I don't know. He left after...an incident, and I haven't seen him since. I thought he was avoiding me. I went to his shop but his boss said he hadn't seen him since Wednesday." She told me, standing her ground at the same time by raising herself higher. She was a little taller than me.

"What incident?" I asked, I was pretty sure I knew what it was.

"I kissed him. On the lips." She said defiantly.

"You what?!" I screeched at her. I wanted to hurt her for trying to take Caine away from me. Earlier it was only suspicion but now it was confirmed: She wanted Caine as well.

"I kissed him! So what?!" She yelled back.

"So what? So what?! You knew I wanted him. He went to you for advice on how to handle things with ME for Celestia's sake. And you know just as much as I do, he will only choose one mare. How could you do this to me Derpy? You know I haven't ever had a stallion of my own and the first one that comes along interested in me, you try to take away." I told her, going from anger to hurt.

"I haven't ever had a stallion who was so kind to me either Twilight. Even my own brother never really liked me. If somepony wanted him they went through my sister and completely skipped me! Caine is one of the few ponies who care about me as more than an acquaintance." She shot right back, full of anger and pain. I wanted to feel bad but at the moment but I was incapable.

"I knew it, you drove him out-of-town. He was already wary of mares in the first place. I am ashamed to admit it but you are the only one who hadn't done anything to try to get him into bed with you. You were his only hope for mares and you messed it up! Now he won't want any of us. He won't be there to protect us..comfort us...love...us." I said as I slumped to the ground against her outside wall. I put my head in my hands and started sobbing.

Derpy just slammed her door and I could hear her crying inside.

I got up a few moments later and decided to head to Rarity's, I really needed a friend right now.

I entered the boutique and heard Rarity call up from the steps that she would be here in a second.

She came down and was halfway through her stores phrase when she noticed who it was and in what state she was in.

"Oh my, Twilight. What happened to you darling? Come, sit-sit. Tell Rarity what happened." She told me as she led me to the couch.

"Caine is gone." I told her.

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><p><strong>AN: Always assume it is Caine's viewpoint unless told otherwise. How did I do with the scene between Twilight and Derpy? Action will be in the next chapter, probably. See ya on the flip side.**


	11. Chapter 11: Defeat of the Elements

**Monday**

The past two days were awful. Sunday the mare had taken me to some weird cave. Inside were about seven other stallions, all with the same look on their faces. When she said stand, they stood. They were under her control just like my body was. After she had fed all of us with rotten meat, she had brought us down to a bare room and for some weird reason had told all of them to fight me. I had won but just barely, my body using a combination of muscle memory and its imprisoned mind to win. I was much stronger than the three pathetic earth stallions and the pegasi and unicorns didn't fly or use magic, respectively. I came out beat up almost beyond repair but she had fixed me. After that she just set me in a corner until this morning.

Being stuck in this domed room sucked and earlier today a completely black and faceless humanoid creature appeared in here and trapped me in some weird ass cage. I don't know why since it's redundant as heck but I didn't care, at least it was something different.

We were on our way out of the forest but she stopped before we got to the edge.

"Now my warrior, time to unlock those gifts of yours." She told me.

She brought her hands up and placed them on my chest and they started to glow. I was still astonished at her use of magic since she was an earth pony but I couldn't voice my question.

A deep rumbling began in the dome and the walls started glowing a red that hurt to look at. I also felt a dull throb on my upper back and on my forehead, which I realized was where a pony's wings or horn would be located.

Suddenly a long black point suddenly came on the screens, which by now I had figured out were my eyes. It looked just like the humanoid in every way: no texture, black, with defining lines like a spiral. I realized suddenly that it was a horn.

"What the hell did you do to me you crazy bitch?" I mumbled to myself.

"Oh Celestia, you're an alicorn. Oh this is even better than I thought!" She exclaimed giddily.

Alicorn? Don't Alicorns have the strength of Earth ponies, magic of unicorns, and the wings... of... pegasi. Oh.

Was all I could think as it dawned on me what had happened. I could only assume that my wings looked like my horn.

"First we take out the element bearers and then we won't having anything stopping us from taking out Celestia and Luna. Come stallion." She said as she waved her hand in a 'follow me' gesture.

"I will be hiding over there." She pointed to a large tree.

"You will go into the town and start causing mayhem, the bearers will be drawn to it and when you see them take them out anyway you can. You are a warrior, not a hero. Got it?" She told me with a firm voice.

I could see my body's head nod.

"Good, now go kill some ponies." She said as she ran off and leaped up into the tree.

**Twilight's POV**

I was reading a book trying to get my mind off of Caine. His leaving had hurt me and the best thing I could do was throw myself into what I loved.

I was actually enjoying myself when Rarity burst through the library's door.

"Twilight! Everypony is saying there is something in the western end of town destroying everything and everypony in sight. We need the elements." Rarity called to me. I grabbed them from their storage space and donned my crown and gave Rarity her necklace.

"Let's go find the others." I told her as we rushed out the door.

Eventually we rounded everypony up and raced towards the commotion.

What we found there shocked all of us. It was Caine, or what we think is Caine. He had wings and a horn that were completely black with no textures and his eyes were a solid sea-green.

When he saw us he rushed us with a blank expression. We needed help, we couldn't activate the elements in time. Suddenly a red form rushed out of nowhere and tackled Caine. I saw it was Big Macintosh, Applejack's older brother. He might have been the only pony in town who could go hoof to hoof with Caine in strength, but he was no fighter and wouldn't last long.

We started up the elements as Big Mac and Caine wrestled on the ground, Caine would get the upper hand eventually. We needed to hurry.

A few seconds later Caine had taken out Big Mac who was lying in the road unconscious. Caine rushed us but we had the elements ready and only needed a shot, which we took. The bad thing is, is that it didn't work. The magic hit Caine but he only stumbled and after a moment charged us again.

Applejack went to intercept. They met a few feet away from us with Applejack throwing a hard jab at Caine's stomach. He caught this and twisted her arm up and in doing so twisted her around. He shot his hoof into the back of her knee with a resounding crack, felling her, he then grabbed her neck and smashed her face into the ground a few times, completely immobilizing her and probably giving her a concussion. Rainbow Dash had taken to the sky after the elements had failed and was now attempting to do a sonic rainboom. She did one, sending a shockwave and herself into Caine but somehow he had judged this. He sidestepped to grab her wing and arm pulling her into a whirlwind spin. He suddenly angled her downward and let go and Rainbow made a small crater in the road, down for the count and hidden from us. Fluttershy had run off and hidden by now and it was just Rarity, Pinkie, and I.

"Rarity!" I called to her. She nodded an understanding. We locked hands and began channeling our magic.

Pinkie had taken this as a cue to buy us some time and charged Caine. She was quickly immobilized by Caine who intercepted her halfway and flew up and body slammed her with another crack.

Rarity and I had started pooling our magic for a blast and had achieved synchronization. We let it off with the intent for it to follow and destroy Caine. I didn't want to do it but there was no other option and I knew if we couldn't stop him, nopony else in Ponyville could either.

We let it off. Caine flew up high into the air and waited for the blast. When it was right in front of him his arm started glowing black and he back-handed the blast, changing it from a purple/blue mix to completely black, sending it back to us.

We couldn't dodge in time nor bring up a shield to hold it off. Rarity was thrown several feet and into a tree and I heard a crack and saw Rarity's leg and forehead in blood. I made a tiny crater in the road but was left conscious but I couldn't feel my arms and my left leg felt broken.

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a periwinkle and yellow blur flying across the sky. It slammed into Caine, bringing him down to the ground. It was Derpy, I realized with terror. She wasn't nearly as fast as Dash was nor as strong, she didn't stand a chance.

She started yelling something at him but I couldn't hear anything. He threw her off of himself and got up. He picked her up with his magic. Suddenly black figures appeared around him and Caine froze. Then he let Derpy go and I blacked out.

**Caine's POV**

The girls had just shot me with the elements of harmony. They had looked at me in utter terror and confusion when they thought the elements didn't work but they were wrong. It just took myself to help them along.

When they shot me with the elements a Rainbow version of the humanoid had appeared. It had reached into the walls and pulled out a green one and left.

"Will" Was all it said as the black one rushed forward.

They grappled on the floor. The green one sending jabs to the sides and the black one sending jabs to the stomach.

They eventually fell out of this and stood up. The green one rushed and led with a sideways punch but the black one expected this and grabbed green's elbow and wrist and twisted him in such a way that he was sent into the floor, hard.

Black stalked over to him and stood there waiting for him to make a move.

"Trust" Green called out to me in my own voice while raising his arm out to me.

I didn't understand what he meant. Black picked green up and threw him at the cage. At the moment he hit it, we had made contact and I knew instantly what to do.

I had to trust. I was confused at this since I did trust until I realized that I never truly did. All the relationships I had set up had trust in them but it wasn't true trust, it was calculated. I didn't tell them more than what was needed and purposefully left things out and didn't tell them anything unless they asked. The trust I did have with them was also marred by my feelings for them, either lowering or heightening it. I didn't truly trust anyone, not even myself. I didn't trust myself to make important decisions, like between Derpy and Twilight. I had chosen not to choose. Even when I had come here I hadn't trusted myself to make friends. Ponies had made friends with me and I went along with it. I never really, truly, trusted anyone in my life and now was the time to end that. I needed to let someone in and who better than myself.

When this revelation hit me the room shook. A blue humanoid crawled out of the walls and rushed black and tackled him. Green got up to help and black ran to the edge. Green and Blue walked side by side up to black before giving him punches across the face at the same time crushing his jaw and cheek bones with a crack. They then put their outer arms on his shoulders and, using their inner arms, punched upward to deal a sickening blow to black, promptly dissolving him. The cage disappeared when they walked up to me.

"Will" Green said.

"Trust" Blue said.

"All" I said as I felt myself slip away.

I awoke to find myself clutching Derpy's throat and about a dozen or so clones of black around me but these ones were different. These ones had claws and wings.

I dropped Derpy to the ground, unconscious, and readied myself for battle.

One of them lunged at me with his claws. I sidestepped and twisted around with my leg in the air and walloped him upside the head, dissolving him.

Two more charged me and surprised me, throwing me to the ground while they clawed at my exposed underside. I brought my fist up and slammed it into the head of the one on my left, sending him away from me. I rolled over and up into a crouching position and lunged at the other one, putting my fist through his neck and dissolving him as well. Suddenly I felt claws on something on my back that pulled me backwards and sent me flying. I twisted in midair and landed on my feet, preparing for the next charge. Once again two more charged me in the same manner as before but this time I was ready. I charged towards them, throwing them off in the progress. I got just enough of a delay to do a flying drop kick to both of them and dissolving them.

After this three more landed from the sky around me. One slashed at me and I dodged but did so into another claw that slashed across my back. I stumbled forward from this and felt a fist slam into my face, sending me backwards. I landed on my back and recovered too slowly as I felt a hard kick to my chest sending me backwards a few more feet.

I was starting to get angry now and went into a rage.

Three charged me again and I shot forward with speed I didn't know I had, almost like I was flying, and grabbed two of them and flew up, much to my surprise, and then straight back down into the ground. I created a small crater and the creatures disappeared.

The remaining half a dozen suddenly morphed together into two, much bigger and stronger looking, versions about twelve feet tall. They charged me and I flew upwards but one of them grabbed my foot and brought me back down with my head slamming against the road. I heard a crack and felt dizzy. I was pretty sure my skull had cracked and I felt a sharp pain in my sides indicating some broken ribs as well. I didn't have a lot of time to contemplate my next move as the other one grabbed my head and threw me at a tree. I had just enough time to right myself and landed feet first into the tree, which drew backwards from my landing then sprung straight back up again launching me. I didn't plan for this but I took it.

I flapped my wings as hard as I could and brought my hands up superman style. I punched through one of them and dissolved him. The other noticing its twin gone dissolved itself and went back to the tree that the mare had hidden in.

Without warning her body fell from the tree completely limp. Seeing as how all my enemies were defeated for the time being, I passed out and fell to the ground.

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><p><strong>AN: Here is the action I promised. Sorry if the action before Caine got his body back was a little underwhelming. Action for stories is kind of hard to do from a third person perspective. I wanted to post this yesterday but my computer has been an asshole everyday since Saturday and basically fucked itself yesterday and I had to fix it, so sorry about that. How do you like chapter? See ya on the flip side.**


	12. Chapter 12: Reintegration to Alienation

**Caine's POV (One month later)**

"Ow, my head." I said out loud as I woke up, I tried to move my hand up to my head to massage the pain away but it wouldn't move.

I looked over to see that it was held down by a brace. I struggled but it was no use. All my limps were held down, even my wings.

"Hello?! Can anypony tell me why I am bound to a bed!" I called out.

A few moments later a pony walked in. They were wearing clothes that made their features extremely hard to pinpoint and examine. It did look to be a mare but I couldn't be sure especially since they were fairly tall.

"Hello, Madam? Sir? I am sorry those clothes you are wearing make it hard to tell. Can you tell me what I am doing here and why I am bound to this bed?" I asked. I did remember what had happened before I had fallen unconscious and it couldn't have been too long since my wounds still felt fresh.

"Caine." It spoke in a firm, feminine voice.

"Celestia?" I asked. The voice sounded familiar but different.

The mare removed her hood to reveal that she was indeed Celestia.

"Celestia. Why am I here?" I asked her, almost begging. I was starting to worry.

"You are being held in the Canterlot prison for your crimes against the town and citizens of Ponyville and the elements of harmony. You have been unconscious for the past month." She stated with anger in her voice.

"What?! I didn't hurt the elements of harmony. Celestia, an Earth pony mare took over my body and locked my mind inside of my head..." I started recapping what had happened to me to cause this.

"I see. And where, pray tell, is this mare?" She asked, skeptic.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember is seeing her body fall limp from the tree she was hiding in before I passed out." I told her.

"Caine. You harmed many ponies that day and almost killed the element bearers. Your story is also hard to believe. An Earth pony mare with the ability over any other magic besides earthen? Preposterous. Only one other pony of non-unicorn decent has achieved any use of magic other than her races' and that is my niece, Cadence. I am afraid I have no choice but to sentence you to death. You are too dangerous to Equestria, especially since you have both wings and strength. It is highly likely that if given enough time you will be granted a horn as well. You are just to dangerous." She told me in a firm voice.

This hit me hard. She wanted me dead and I had almost killed the elements of harmony. But something the mare had said to me while she controlled me stopped me from accepting my fate. I had a great destiny. How could I abandon that. I needed to find out what it was.

"Celestia please. Isn't there any way that I can prove to you that I am telling you the truth?" I begged her.

She pondered for a moment before speaking "There is one way but you may not like the consequences."

"Please Celestia. I have to apologize. I have to right my wrongs. I need to fulfill my destiny."

"I will attempt a mental link. If I am able to do so then I will be able to see your life and your memories. The only problem is, is that I need to start from the beginning lest I accidentally destroy some of them or drive you insane. I will see who you are and why you are that way. Every year, every hour, every minute, every second of your life I will experience. Are you okay with this?"

This stunned me. Celestia would see everything, all the horrible things I had done in the name of my brother. The reason why I kept people at a distance. She would know my very being. I didn't know if I was okay with that. I had just recently learned to trust but could I trust someone so completely as to let them know me so completely, to have them basically take every deep and dark secret and memory that I have locked away and bring it to the surface. I didn't know if I was ready for that.

I spent a great deal of time contemplating till I reached a decision and a revelation.

"I...agree. But what about Ponyville? They think I am a monster and bad stallion. How will I get them to forgive me, especially when I only have a second-hand account of what I did?"

"While doing the mental link I am able to store certain memories for review later but if I do this all of your thoughts will be on display. Whomever I show these memories to will know anything and everything you had thought during them. Would you like me to do this?" She asked.

"Yes. Every memory you deem necessary to prove my innocence, take. You have my permission to show them to anypony who doubts me. I just want to go back to Ponyville and finish what I started." I said. I was determined now more than ever.

"I will put my hand on your forehead to commence the process and once it has started it cannot be stopped. I will fly through your memories but it will only seem like seconds has passed to you. You will feel a strong sensation and your mind will try to fight it with all its might. Try to resist this as much as you can. What ever you do, do not break the connection. If you do, you might cease to exist. All of your memories that I have seen already will be dissolved and lost forever. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Do you understand?" She asked, a little more demanding.

"I understand Princess Celestia." I said.

Instead of replying, her hand shot forward and onto my forehead like she had told me. immediately I felt a very strange sensation and my mind felt like I was having the biggest migraine in my life while having the catchiest and most annoying song, ever, stuck in my head. I tried to let it flow but it was hard and I couldn't do much to stop from resisting it. At the same time though I felt like I was being, for lack of a better word, raped, mentally. I could feel Celestia digging through the memories of Caine and bringing up memories he had long forgotten and never wished brought back to the surface. Eventually she let go of Caine's head. I felt much better afterward but felt like I needed to bathe my brain.

Her eyes were watering and she had a sad look on her face.

"Princess? Why are you crying? Did you find and take the memories that you needed from Cain- myself?" I caught myself speaking in the third person. When she did that I felt like I had disconnected from myself. Like my soul and mind were separated.

"I didn't realize what you had been through." She replied as she wiped away tears.

"I haven't been through that much. The worst that ever happened was that I was disowned by my brother." I told her. I seriously didn't remember anything bad enough happening to cause anyone to cry, least of all Celestia herself.

"You have lived a life of loneliness Caine. You haven't let anypony into your heart besides your brother and he betrayed you when you decided to do the right thing. I don't know how you are the way you are by being rewarded by doing bad things and punished for good. You have been a noble and kind person when you can be, to everypony. I am sorry I doubted you and I hope you can forgive me." Celestia said.

"I won't forgive you for thinking of your subjects Celestia. Now get me off of this uncomfortable table and let's get going. I have business to take care of." I told her.

She used her magic to release me and change me back into a fresh pair of clothes.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this, even after you have learned to trust?" She asked me, saddened by my decision.

I had decided at some point along the way that I couldn't love another pony. I could only hurt them if I tried, as evidenced by the last time that had happened. I know neither Twilight nor Derpy deserve to deal with me and if I tried to build a relationship I would end up hurting them and any other mare I would build one with. I wasn't good enough nor reliable enough to have a relationship. By trusting myself I learned who and what I really was, and that is not anything I want to weigh somepony down with.

"Yes Celestia. I firmly believe it." I told her.

"As you wish. I cannot make you love another."

"Thank you." I told her, ending the conversation as we exited the room.

We walked out of the castle a few minutes later. I kept getting hateful glares from guards and servants who walked by us but they quickly dropped them whenever Celestia flashed her horn. They looked at me with pity in their eyes which I wasn't comfortable with.

"Celestia, are you showing all of them my memories?" I whispered to her.

"Yes, I am." She whispered back.

"Exactly which memories are you showing them. The ones you should be showing them shouldn't make them pity me."

"I am showing them what you have been through and the trials you have faced."

"What does that mean?" I whispered harshly.

"They can see a lot of the memories that make you, you."

"That wasn't what I meant by taking any of the memories that proved my innocence, Celestia. I beg of you, please, only show them what had happened to me concerning the mare and my body's crimes." I pleaded to her.

"Fine, if that is what you wish." She relented with a hint of disappointment.

"Thank you."

We arrived at a chariot with pegasi guards waiting to take us to Ponyville. I was about to ask why we ourselves couldn't fly there until I realized that I didn't know how to.

We boarded and set off for Ponyville.

"Celestia, how do you plan to show everypony my memories? I doubt you have the time to show them my memories one by one."

"I have sent ahead for the element bearers to gather all of the townsfolk for a town meeting. We will be the last ones there."

"Ok." I simply stated.

We arrived about twenty minutes later. I was really scared about how the townsponies would react to me once they saw me without having seen my memories. I also dreaded the fact of facing Twilight, Derpy, and Rarity. I had hurt Twilight and Derpy emotionally and physically and had abandoned all of them.

We headed for the town hall and went inside.

Everypony turned to look at us and I was immediately met with an overwhelming sense of anger and fury. I tried to look as small as possible as Celestia and I made our way to the stage. We went up the steps and Celestia stepped to the front of it while I stayed back with my arms behind me butler style.

"Ponies of Ponyville. I come here today with Caine. Most, if not all, of you know who he is and what he has done. We are here today to correct that and to explain the situation. Caine has given me permission to show you all the memories, that I have gained from a mental link, to prove his innocence." They all gasped at the words mental link. Apparently they all knew what it was and apparently the specifics of it too since many of them softened their expressions immediately.

"I will now begin to show you all what has truly happened." Celestia's hands and horn glowed a bright gold along with everypony's eyes.

A few moments later the glow died and everypony looked at me with regret. I knew I needed to handle this lest I be given special treatment.

"I can see everypony feels bad for judging me." I told them. Many nodded.

"Well stop it!" I yelled at them in a firm voice. This surprised many of them, some of which backed away in fear.

"Do not regret judging me harshly when you knew not the context of the situation. None of you could have known. You acted rationally and expertly in your judgment of myself. My mind may have not committed the crime, but my body still did and that completely takes away your right to feel regret. You thought it was me and you were right, technically...it was. I do not want special treatment because you regret judging me nor do I want special treatment for any other reason. I only wish to be accepted back into your town with open arms and to leave all of what happened in the past. Can you grant me this wish?" I looked out at them with pleading eyes.

After a few moments nopony responded, they just kept continuing to stare at me. "I understand. I will take my leave then. It was...nice, here. For the most part. I bid you all a wonderful life." I said in a fake happy tone. On the inside I was devastated. They did not want me around anymore and by being a coward I had lost everything and everyone. I understood why they didn't want me here.

As I was about to walk out the door, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked back to see the second mare I had ever met, the nurse.

"We don't want you to leave Caine. We want you to stay. Isn't that right everypony?" She asked of them.

"That's right!" "He should be here with us!" "You technically did nothing wrong, you should be allowed to stay!" I heard these and many other various yells and affirmations from the crowd.

After they had died down I decided to speak "Thank you everypony, that means a lot to me. I will be taking my leave though but only for tonight. I have to work some things out and will be back in the morning. Goodbye everypony!"

I left after that leaving the town hall and walking to where my first night shelter had been when I had left the first time. I was only about thirty feet from town hall when I heard a voice.

"Caine!" I turned around to see Twilight running up to me with the other element bearers and Derpy in tow.

"Yes girls?" I asked of them when they caught up.

Before any of them could get anything out Rainbow and Applejack walked up to me and decked me right in the face. I toppled backwards onto the ground with a resounding thud.

"Okay, kinda deserved that." I admitted.

"Caine! I am so glad that this was all a misunderstanding." Twilight cheered.

"As am I Twilight. Now if that is all you girls are here for I will be taking my leave." I told them as I stood up and turned around.

"Caine darling, where are you going?" I heard Rarity ask.

"To set up camp. I will be staying there till I get enough bits to move into an apartment or buy or build my own house." I told them as I turned back to them sensing more.

"Caine. You know you can stay with either Rarity or myself, right?" Twilight told me.

"Or me." Derpy added which earned her a slight glare from Twilight.

"Thank you girls but I don't think it would be best for me to be around you anymore. I hurt you, all three of you, both emotionally and physically. I don't want to do it again and I don't want to be tempted to try anything that might end up the same way. I think it would be a good idea for us to part ways. I need to discover how to unlock my horn anyways and learn how to use it, and my wings." I told all of them.

"But, what about us? I thought we were going somewhere Caine." Twilight was almost crying now.

"I'm sorry Twilight. I don't want anything like this to ever happen again. I accept the fact that I won't, and can't, have a relationship in Equestria, of any kind." I said as I looked at the three mares who had dominated my life ever since I arrived. The rest of the girls just stood quietly while we talked.

"Caine, how can you say that? Of course you can have relationships in Equestria. You hurting us once shouldn't keep you from severing ties with us and swearing off any more." Derpy told me.

"No, I can't. I believe you know how I was able to keep my wings?" I asked them, which they nodded yes in response.

"I decided to trust myself and in doing so realized that I am not good enough. Never have been. Not for my brother, not for myself, and definitely not for you. The way we met and bonded is filled with violence. I don't want that to be apart of your lives any longer and so I have decided to essentially ostracize myself from the townsfolk in every way possible, only interacting with them when the need arises." I told them with firmness in my voice signaling the conversation was over.

"Please Caine. None of us want you out of our lives. We care for you and want you to be happy. How can you do that without friends or a special somepony?" Twilight asked me, not getting my hint.

"Easy, I don't. I did it for all my life and I only had about a week away from it. I will be fine, I won't be happy, but fine. You all will be safe from the danger I seem to draw in and I won't be able to hurt you ever again." I told her.

"But darling-" Rarity started.

"Please. Please just let me be alone. I have accepted my fate and now I expect you all to do the same. I will be leaving town and setting up my shelter. Please, don't follow me." I said turning away.

I felt a hand on my shoulder but didn't look back to see who it was and just shrugged it off.

I could hear foot steps behind me. I stopped and turned suddenly, making whomever was following me bump into me. It was Derpy.

She recovered quickly and wrapped her arms around me sobbing into my shirt. "Please Caine. Don't leave us. Don't leave me. You are one of the few ponies who treat me as anything more than a clutzy freak. You are the only stallion ever who has treated me with kindness. I want to be with you. I want us to be friends, to trust each other, maybe even eventually love each other." She said as she pushed herself deeper into me.

I grabbed her arms and pried her off of me. I knew I needed to do something to get them off of me, they wouldn't let me leave otherwise. I cupped her chin in my hands and leaned down as if to give her a kiss. "I'm sorry." I whispered to her. Her eyes became clouded with confusion. I grabbed her throat as softly as I could and threw her back. Hard enough to put some distance between us but not hard enough to trip her, or so I thought. She fell down and landed on her butt with a thud.

The girls just gasped at my sudden outburst as Derpy rubbed her throat and tried to get up only to be brought back down by the numbness in her rear.

"Don't follow me." I said with force, loud enough for all of them to hear. I turned and left and didn't hear anymore protests.


	13. Chapter 13: Don't beat the Heat

**A/N: This one gets steamy. You have been warned.**

**Tuesday (One week later)**

The day I had left was a troublesome day. I realized without knowing how to fly my wings were more trouble then they were worth and since that day I had spent all my free time trying to learn how. I actually got decent results but knew I was doing some things wrong as I could only fly for short amounts of time and only glide at that. Most of the time that I had landed the joints connecting my wings to my back were fairly tired when I wasn't. Most of the townsfolk didn't really seem to care that I had wings but was originally an earth pony. What I am assuming most of them didn't know was that I still had all of the abilities of an earth pony as well as those of a pegasus.

I had set up my temporary in my original camp, which had been destroyed by creatures. I was a little mad but I had been gone for a month and had only inhabited it for a few hours so I didn't have any real claim to the spot.

My boss had accepted me back with open arms. He had pressed on about who I had chosen. I had decided to tell him that I didn't choose anyone and that I was never going to. I seemed shocked and a little saddened at my choice but let it go. He was my closest guy friend to be honest and I was glad of that.

After the incident with Derpy, the girls had steered clear of me and I was happy because of this. Now I didn't have to worry about anyone but myself, pony or human.

Today I was on my way to work once again. I had gone everyday since I had returned to Ponyville since there were a lot of clocks coming in. Apparently ponies all over Equestria had somehow heard about the shop and we were up to our eyes in orders. My boss had to hire two more helpers just to keep up. Today was going to be my first day at the cash register, but only because I was the slowest worker and my boss wanted to get a lot done today. I was also the best at math for some reason so that just compounded the fact that I was better off upfront then in back.

I got to the store and called to my boss to let him know I was here. He responded back and I headed to the counter to get ready for a long day of standing and sitting and generally doing nothing. Most of our orders now came in the mail. I was really only here to fix small problems with my hands from the locals.

The first customer of the day walked in and I was surprised to see who it was, she shared the same expression.

"Caine?" Twilight asked.

"Hello Twilight. What may I fix for you today?" I repeated the stores quote.

"The gears in my clock won't start when I crank it and I can't find what's wrong. Can you fix it?" She asked.

"Shouldn't take more than twenty minutes. I have most of the supplies right here to fix it." I told her as I reached under the counter to bring out a small toolbox.

"Oh thank you." She said gratefully. I gave her a weird stare but she either didn't notice or didn't care.

"No problem Twilight." I said as I started to get to work on it. As I did this she struck up a conversation.

"Caine, do you still feel the same way as before?" She asked me in a very awkward manner.

I just sighed and brought my face away from the inner workings of the clock to look at her.

"Yes Twilight, I do. It's lonely but I can deal with lonely." I returned back to examining the clock.

"But don't you get cold? Don't you get uncomfortable or scared?" She asked.

Without taking my eyes off of the clock "No, yes, and no. The ground is incredibly uncomfortable but it's nothing I can't handle. I should have enough bits stored up to begin renting a house within a month." I told her. I finally found a faulty gear. It was tipped a wierd way throwing off all of the other gears, which I would have to manually realign.

"Why don't you stay with me? I still have that comfy bed in the guest bedroom and I promise I won't do anything unfriendlike to you." She told me.

"No Twilight. You keep promising me these things and then breaking those promises. How do I know I can trust you? Better yet, how do you know you can trust me?" I said, giving her a glare.

"Because I care for you Caine, I don't know how to make that clearer to you. And I know I can trust you. You haven't given me any reason not to. So why not? You having nothing to lose." She pointed out.

"You have a point Twilight, but it's the principal that matters." I told her.

"I don't believe you." She called my bluff.

"Ok fine, what of it. I don't want to live with you Twilight. I don't want to be tempted, bad things happen when I am tempted and each time you come near me you tempt me just a little bit." I said as I rose and got into her face.

"Really?" She said backing away, twirling her hair on her finger, and blushing.

"Yes really. Now let me work so we can end this pointless conversation." She didn't talk anymore after that. She had a look of hurt on her face but didn't say anything. I finished the clock about ten minutes later.

"Caine. Just try it for one night. That's all I ask." She said as she put her hand to my cheek and the bits on the counter. She grabbed her clock and left, her hand slipping away as she got farther away. It was really hard to resist but I did it anyway. I saw her form walk across the floor swaying her hips and letting her tail swish side to side, hypnotizing me. When she turned to bump out the door she caught me staring and smirked. She knew what she was doing the whole time, that crazy mare.

I started thinking about what she had said. A nice, warm, and comfortable bed to sleep in. I wouldn't have to hunt for my food and I could actually take decent showers and wash my clothes properly. She had a good point, I had nothing to lose by living with her but like I told her, it's the principle.

I spent the rest of the day in silence pondering my problem till the store closed.

**Wednesday**

Nearly two weeks had passed since the Twilight episode and business was starting to die down since it was near the beginning of spring. Apparently clocks break the most in the winter. I don't remember why but that's what my boss said.

I had saved up enough bits to finally make a down payment for three months on an apartment. I had everything in my bit pouch and was heading to town hall to set everything up. As I was on my way something bumped into me while I was double checking the amount of bits I had. It was three fillies, one of which I recognized as Sweetie belle, Rarity's sister. When they had bumped into me I was in midstep and stumbled forward. My pouch bag had flown out of my hand and into the river below. Quickly being swept away by the onslaught of water from the melting snow.

The girls just continued on, chasing each other while I just stared at the river. It had taken me three weeks to save up those bits and I only had a few back home. I had only been able to get enough because my boss had forwarded me a weeks pay as well. I was absolutely broke now and I wouldn't have enough money to last me a week and I didn't want to ask my boss for another advance. It was like the universe wanted me to be with Twilight, I thought to myself. But, why?

I couldn't answer my question. I resigned myself to my fate and hoped Twilight would take me in as I headed to her library tree house.

When I arrived I knocked on the door. A few moments later Twilight opened the door with a smile. When she finally noticed who it was she became excited yet scared at the same time.

"Oh, Caine. It's nice to see you. Come in." She told me as she stepped to the side to let me in.

"Thank you Twilight." I walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Twilight, I need a favor." I told her, cutting to the chase.

She sat down next to me but kept her distance, she inclined her head towards me to tell me to continue.

"Is your invitation still open?" I asked.

She looked surprised at this but at the same time happy.

"Of course Caine. Why wouldn't it be?" She asked me.

"It has been two weeks, you might have let somepony else stay with you." I told her.

"No, nobody comes here unless they want to check out books." She told me, a little saddened.

"What made you change your mind?" She asked.

I explained to her what happened and she nodded along with me.

"So you didn't come here because you wanted to give us a shot." She stated with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"I am afraid so Twilight. Like I said, I won't and can't have a relationship here. It only ends in pain or heartache. I'm sorry Twilight, if things were different then I would gladly sweep you up and give you the time of your life on the town but, that isn't the case." I sighed.

"Well, that's okay. You are still welcome here. How long will you be staying?" She asked me.

"Until I am able to make enough bits to put a down payment for three months on an apartment. So about five weeks." I told her. She perked up a bit at this but tried to hide it.

"That's quite a long time Caine. You will have to earn your place here." She said with a devilish smile.

"Not a problem though I will let you know, I have spent most of my free time trying to learn how to fly." I told her. I could handle anything she could throw at me.

"Okay, well I better get going. I have some errands to run and you need to get moved in here. I will see you around dinner time, goodbye Caine." She said as she got up to leave. She walked out the front door a few moments later, leaving me with mixed feelings. I was happy I was here with her but hated myself for feeling this way. I didn't want to be tempted but I had no other choice. I had visited Rarity once but she had completely ignored me at every opportunity and I couldn't even find Derpy.

After analyzing my emotions for a few more minutes I decided to go get my things. It didn't take long, I didn't really own much that wasn't a part of my camp. I waited at the library for Twilight for the rest of the day. She finally came home with dinner for us. A few burgers and assorted vegetables from a diner.

We ate in silence but she kept glancing over to me with weird looks.

"Gah! I can't take it anymore." I yelled as I got up from the table. I was frustrated at my own feelings, I didn't want anything to do with them but they kept coming back and they grew stronger with every look Twilight sent me.

"Caine, what's wrong?" Twilight asked as she got up to go to me. She put a hand on my chest and another on my cheek, instantly calming me.

"I can't do it." I told her with a sad expression.

"Do what?" She asked, confusion evident on her face.

"Stay with you. Those looks you kept giving me only make it harder to stay on the path I have chosen for myself. I can't do it." I said turning away from her.

"Then don't choose that path Caine. You obviously want somepony to hold and let that somepony hold you. Why not let it be me?" She asked.

When she did this I realized that I wasn't just scared of hurting somepony but scared of the prospect of having a mare be mine. These feelings were getting stronger and I had to stop them. I had to give in to my fear, let it protect me like it was evolved to do.

"I'm sorry Twilight. I am just too scared to." I told her as I untangled myself from her and turned to leave.

She put her hand on my arm. I turned around to face her and was suddenly met with the sight of her eyes and her lips on mine. I couldn't resist and melted under her touch. That is until I smelled something strange. It was slightly familiar yet different at the same time.

I pulled myself away from her. "Twilight, why do you smell like that?"

She just snuggled up to me and tightened her grip. "Caine, I'll be honest. I'm in heat, most of the mares are right now. I want you so bad, I need you Caine." She said as she grabbed my wings and squeezed gently, sending a shiver down my spine. It was at that moment that I felt like my crotch was being baked alive. I knew exactly what heat was. In most mammals heat was something that made the females of a species so horny that if they even saw a male they wouldn't hesitate to mate and the smell they gave off made it impossible for the males to resist her advances. I didn't know how it worked in a sentient species nor how I was resisting the smell even though each moment it was in my nostrils it made my, already damaged, willpower shrink.

Before I succumbed to my baser instincts and rutted her like a wild animal, I pried her off of me and tried to run out the door. But Twilight grabbed me in her magic and brought me to her.

"Caine, I have wanted this ever since that second night we spent together. I need you. Right. Now." She whispered in a seductive tone. I was having a harder and harder time resisting her.

"Twilight, please. Do you really want to do this, this way. By having me rut you like some simple fling? Don't you want your first time with me to be special?" I didn't know if she would buy it. I had pulled it out of my ass on the spot and barely believed it myself.

She thought about it for a few seconds. She lost control of me while she pondered. I took this opportunity to run and finally made it out of the library. I could hear her screaming bloody murder behind me but it was getting harder and harder to hear her, which I took as a sign that she wasn't giving chase.

I ran into an alleyway to catch my breath. Seconds later I was tackled to the ground, hard.

Once again I smelled the scent and felt like there was an iron on my crotch. I looked at my chest to see Derpy smiling up at me as she tried to hump me through our clothes while at the same time taking them off. She was already topless and I could see every inch of her succulent-what am I doing? This scent is screwing with my mind! I had to get away. I flipped Derpy onto her back which she just smiled at.

"Oh, so you want to be on top huh big boy? That's fine with me." She said as she wrapped her arms around me and forced our lips together before I could get off of her.

I tried getting up but it was no use. I finally remembered I had wings and gave them a hard flap sending Derpy and I backwards. Startled she let go. I used this to get up and sprint away. I had to get out of town before any other mares jumped me.

About ten minutes later I was out of town and sprinting through the forest. I eventually came upon Zecora's hut. I didn't know if she was on the same heat cycle as the mares, being a different species and all, but I had to see if she knew when this would end.

I knocked on her door and she answered a few moments later.

"Ah Caine. Come in come in, it looks like it will rain." She said as she looked up at the sky.

"Zecora, the mares in Ponyville are in heat and I don't know what to do. Can you tell me how long it lasts?" I asked her.

"The mares of ponies go through heat. This is only stopped when they are helped to beat. In one weeks time the spell will end. In the meantime, you should try to mend." She told me. I was confused when she said the last line but realized what she meant eventually. I needed to mend emotionally. I needed to choose between Twilight or Derpy. I knew I couldn't resist and just being in Ponyville meant I couldn't get away from them.

"You may stay with me. As long as you let them be." Zecora told me.

"Thank you Zecora." She nodded and gave me a pillow and blanket. I set up my old bed and fell asleep soon afterwards.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know I have skipped a lot of time but I am assuming you don't want to know every little thing about Caine's day to day life. See ya on the flip side.**


	14. Chapter 14: The Decision

**Thursday (One week later)**

The past week had seen me helping Zecora with her brewing and other household chores. I actually learned quite a bit about the subject but was only an amateur at best, and at worst a six-year-old kid in a chemistry classroom.

I had been worried the next day about my job but Zecora ensured me that the town would be devoid of any stallions what so ever for the most part. Any stallion that didn't have a mare/s would be staying with a female relative or in a type of bunker somewhere in the country side. I was surprised to learn that the heat was that terrifying for stallions and was glad that when the next one rolled around I would have a place to stay.

At the moment I was headed back to town and more importantly, Twilight's library. I had to smooth things out with her and assure her that there were no hard feelings, even though I was a little bitter. I also needed to check on Derpy. I had seen her in a very vulnerable position as well.

I was almost sure who I wanted to be with, if anypony. Zecora had helped me decide with one of her potions she had concocted. It was called lifted fog of the soul or something like that. It had helped me delve inside myself for some much-needed self-reflection and what I had found there had helped me greatly. This place truly was magical and I was glad for that.

I reached Twilight's library and knocked. A few moments later a very disheveled, and smelly, Twilight Sparkle opened the door with a bathrobe on. She didn't smell bad, just like she had been having sex almost nonstop for the past week, which for all I knew, she had.

Her eyes lit up when she saw me, then immediately darkened.

"Caine." She stated warily.

"Hello Twilight. Is something wrong?" I asked her, sensing her hostility towards me.

"Nothing's wrong. Where have you been the past week? After you _left_ me, I didn't see you at all." She stated angrily.

"I have been with Zecora. Is that a problem?" I wanted to know what was wrong with her but didn't want to outright accuse her lest I make it worse.

She narrowed her eyes at me. I think I knew why she was angry with me. "We didn't do anything Twilight. She is on a different heat schedule then ponies. I hid there, so what almost happened between us wouldn't happen at all." I told her.

She lightened up a little but still seemed angry.

"Ok then. Why did you run out on me? Do you despise me that much, that you could resist my heat smell and my advances that you could not only trick me into letting you go but also have the will power to full on sprint away?" She accused me.

Have to give her points on directness. I decided to end this and do what I had realized I had been wanting to for a long time. I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her into the library, kicking the door closed. I then put my arms around her lower back and hefted her to my height and kissed her with all my might. She resisted at first but eventually accepted and leaned into it, putting her arms around my neck. I enjoyed every bit of it, I finally felt whole. I didn't know if our relationship could work or if I was too jaded to love but I had to give it a shot.

After a few minutes of this I pulled away. "I could never find you repulsive." I said as I set her down.

"But with how you are now, you come very close." I joked as I gestured to her appearance and smell.

She responded with a gentle slap to the shoulder.

"Why do you smell like that anyways? You smell like you have been having sex non-stop for the past week." She blushed at this and turned away.

"You don't understand the inner workings of a mares heat, do you?" She stated.

"All I know is that a female gets extremely horny and the smell she secretes makes it almost impossible for a male to resist. But that is only for non-sentient beings on my world. Humans don't have heats so I don't know what it would be like for a pony." I told her.

"Well, basically what you just said but there is more. When a mare goes into heat it can actually be painful. Our areas get extremely warm, most of the time to extreme discomfort. If left untreated it gets worse and worse till we are forced to take care of it any way we can. That's what I have been doing almost all week." She told me. Her blush had gone down when she had went into the scholar mode I knew she had yet never seen.

She saw my expression of hurt and assumed what it meant and set about quickly fixing it "I didn't have any help from anypony. It was just me all week." She said quickly.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't be hurt. For all you knew this past week, I despised you and wanted nothing to do with you. I wouldn't blame you if you had found a stallion to help you with your problem. I took way too long deciding." I explained to her.

"It's okay. You know, I am still in the final stages of heat, we could go a few rounds if you wanted." She told me in a sultry tone. I could tell she was joking.

"Don't push it. I had a hard enough time coming to this decision, don't make me regret it." I told her sternly. I think I may have over done it with the jesting as she looked horrified.

"That was a little too far, sorry." I told her. This calmed her down.

"I need to leave Twilight. Derpy got farther than you that night and I also have to explain to her my decision. I will see you at the end of the day." I told her. She nodded and I turned to leave.

I was almost at the door before I felt her hand on my arm. For someone in a bathrobe she moved pretty freakin quick. I turned around and was met with a quick peck on the cheek.

"Thank you for choosing me. I know it must have been hard to choose between your best friend and the horny mare." She consolidated me.

"I think it was always you Twilight. But I still care too much about Derpy to let her out of my life and I shouldn't have tried to. I really hope she will still want to be friends." I told Twilight, revealing my fears to her.

"Don't worry. Derpy is very understanding, I don't think she would let this affect your friendship. Now go make things right with her." Twilight assured me as she pushed me out the door and closed it.

I just sighed. I really didn't want to do this. Twilight was hard but Derpy felt like I was going to die. I started on my way towards her house and arrived a few minutes later.

I knocked on the door and after a few minutes Derpy answered. She looked exactly like Twilight did only with a different colored robe. She smelled almost the same yet different.

It took her a moment to recognize me just like Twilight.

"Oh Caine. I am so sorry." She apologized, pulling me into a tight hug which I returned.

"It's alright. But we do need to talk. About us." I told her.

She gained a horrified look but led me inside nonetheless. We sat down and got comfortable. She motioned for me to continue.

"I have decided between you and Twilight." I started off. I couldn't read her expression at the moment. Usually her eyes didn't help with this but this time, they blocked off everything.

"And?" She prodded.

"I have chosen Twilight." I told her with a sad expression.

"I see." She looked away from me with tears in her eyes.

I scooted over to her and wrapped her in a hug to try and calm her down.

"I'm sorry Derpy. It's just that I see you as my best friend, not my marefriend. I think the only reason you and Twilight were equal in my mind was because of that. I thought that if a relationship could work with anypony it would have been you. But that isn't fair to you. Having a relationship _work_ is not the same as having one _live._ I would really like it if we could still be friends but would understand if seeing me hurt you too much." I waited for a response that didn't seem to come. I just held her in that hug for as long as she needed.

Eventually she wriggled her way out of it and stood up and went into her room and didn't come out. After a few minutes I got up and went to her bedroom to find the door closed.

**Knock Knock Knock**

"Please Caine. I don't want to talk anymore. Just leave." I heard her call through the door. It hurt me to hear this. I, of all ponies, was the only one who had ever been able to do this to her. It hurt me because I was the only one she had let into her heart and I had chosen another mare over her. I wanted to comfort her but didn't want to make her feel worse. I decided to do as she said and leave.

"If you ever need me Derpy. You know where I am." I called to her. My response was a fresh wave a tears. I exited her house and closed the door behind me.

I went back to the library to find Twilight had cleaned herself up and was sitting down reading a book.

"Hello Caine." She called when she heard the door open.

"Hey Twilight." I responded.

"How did it go?" She asked, not turning around. I walked to the couch and sat next to her.

"Not good. I hurt her Twilight and I don't know if she will ever want to see me again."

"I see. Well you still have me." She said as she scooted over to me and laid her head on my chest, trying to comfort me.

"I know but I was the only pony who could hurt her like that, and I did. I hope I didn't make her think that she would never find that special somepony. If I did, I would never be able to forgive myself." I said as I looked down at her.

She reached up and gave me a kiss. "These kinds of things tend to sort themselves out. You will know if she ever wants to see you again, soon. And she is pretty resilient, I bet, with enough coaxing, she will bounce right back." Twilight reasoned.

"I know but I still hurt her. She told me to leave so if she wants to talk some more she will have to come to me. I don't want to make it worse by basically stalking her to get her to talk to me."

"That is a good plan. In the meantime, let's just enjoy each others company." She suggested as she nestled even closer to me and I wrapped an arm around her.

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><p><strong>AN: The decision has been made. I am not planning on having Caine switch between Derpy and Twilight, nor am I going to make them a herd. It is a possibility just not an inevitability. Do you like my choice? You better because I was conflicted as hell and it was almost a split second decision. What happened was, I started this chapter intending to do something radically different and on a whim put Twilight down as his final choice. That scene where Caine pushes Twilight into the library was when I decided. I have most of the story planned out at this point so don't expect any delays due to the story. See ya on the flip side.**


	15. Chapter 15: Flight of the Avian

**Friday**

I woke up to an aching back and sore wings. I really needed to get some tips on how to live with these things because, at this point, they were just a pain in the ass.

The reason for my discomfort was because Twilight had slept on top of me while I had slept on top of my stomach. We had decided to sleep together since we already had both nights I had stayed here and thought: 'Why not?'.

"Twilight, wake up." I groaned to her, half asleep myself. I could see through the slits of my eyes that it was already around ten in the morning.

"Five more minutes Spike." She grumbled in her sleep. Well that was new, apparently she still missed Spike.

I didn't feel like throwing her off of me so I tried a different approach "Twilight, Caine fell off a roof and broke his spine. He's in the hospital." I groaned at her once more. This did the trick and she shot up and looked around to find herself on top of me. Once she discovered this she gave me a hard thump to the back.

"Ow! Ok, ok I'm up too, now." I told her. For a scrawny librarian, she had an excellent arm.

"You better be. That was mean Caine." She said as she got out of bed. I noticed she had nothing but a bra and panties on and started sweeping my eyes up and down. What? She's my marefriend, don't judge. And besides, she went to bed like that.

"See something you like?" She asked, catching me staring.

"Yeah, I do. I like it a lot." I said as I got up and showed myself off, flexing where I could. I had gone to bed in nothing but boxer shorts last night and I was still pretty ripped from my previous life. Being a naturally strong earth stallion also helped.

She giggled slightly at this and walked around and placed her arms around me. Big mistake. I hefted her up and fell back onto the bed, her screaming as we went backwards.

"You're so mean to me." She said as she laid on top of me. I just responded by squeezing her tighter. I could get used to this relationship thing.

"Anyways, let me go. I have things to do today and you have to go see Rainbow Dash." She told me.

"What? When did I decide to do this?" I asked her as she escaped from my grasp and started getting her things together for a shower.

"Yesterday while you were out. Your marefriend went to her friend Rainbow dash and asked if she would give you lessons in flying. You agreed and will meet her in about forty-five minutes in the northern field." She told me. Damn, she really was a no-nonsense mare.

"Thank you my beautiful mare." I told her as I got up to mess with her some more. She expected this and dodged out-of-the-way and out the door with her supplies in hand.

"Speedy mare." I whispered to myself as I got my clothes ready. Apparently, Rarity had dropped off my finished wardrobe right around when I had left so I now had about twenty different pairs of shorts and shirts and a few winter clothes, mostly just jeans and hoodies.

It was about ten-thirty right now so it would be another half hour before I had to go meet Rainbow. I decided to head there now just so she couldn't give me crap about being late, and in case I got lost I would have time to get back on track.

I walked out of Twilight's bedroom and towards the bathroom.

"Heading to the field!" I called to Twilight. I heard a bottle drop signifying that I had startled her.

"Alright!" She called back, a little irritated.

I went downstairs and out the door. I made my way to the northern field and arrived around twenty minutes later. It wasn't long before Rainbow Dash arrived.

"T'sup Caine." She said while landing.

"Nothing. You?" I responded.

"Not much."

"So what are we going to do to start off. I can already fly a little bit but I assume it isn't anywhere near how I am supposed to do it." I told her, anxious to start learning how to actually fly.

"First I need to examine your wings, take off your shirt and turn your back to me." She said. I didn't hear anything in her voice besides a teacher's tone so I complied.

She walked up to them and yanked at the base of the wing, the part that connected it to my back, hard. It hurt like a bitch but didn't think saying anything would make her stop.

"Hmm, the muscles seem to be fully developed considering you just got them a little while ago. They could be stronger but they should still be suitable for most types of flying that average pegasi do." She told me. After she finished telling me this she started to examine my wings themselves. Unlike a pony, whose wings matched the color of their skin, mine weren't a tan color. Probably because a human's skin color changes almost constantly, at least that is what I assumed. No, my wings were two colors. The ridges that held the bone, at what would be considered the top of the wing (my wings appeared to be much more bat-like structurally, but looked avian), was a deep black while the actual feathers themselves are an ashy white.

"Sweet Celestia! What have you been doing with these things? Even fillies take better care of their wings then you do. Have you preened them at all? The feathers are a mess and the sensitive fur at the top is in complete disarray. It's a miracle you can even get off the ground let alone fly for any period of time." She told me in utter disgust and disbelief.

"I'll let you in on a little secret Rainbow Dash." I whispered to her so she had to come closer.

"I wasn't born an avian. I was born a human, who was then transformed into a human _Earth_ stallion hybrid." I whispered to her.

"What's an avian?" She asked me. Out of all of that, that is what she notices.

"A human with wings." I told her.

"Now can you teach me how to take care of my wings properly?" I asked her.

"Alright. But you need to do this every time you are planning to fly and the less often you do it the longer it takes." She told me. I just nodded.

"Okay, first we start with your secondaries since those are the hardest to reach and you will be less likely to mess them up when they're done and you are working on your primaries. First you find all of your..." And that is how I spent the next half hour learning how to preen and wash and sleep with my new wings. Let me tell you, they are a lot of work. If I don't preen, wash, or sleep properly I could very well hurt my wings or make them useless for an extended period of time. Not to mention they were very sensitive, so a slap to the bone on a wing would be like a punch to your funny bone.

After Rainbow was done explaining all of this to me like I was a colt who was about to go on his first flight, she told me how, and when, to flap and turn properly. Apparently, before I was putting a lot of power into quick flaps trying to get myself off the ground, when, in actuality, long flaps with minimal power was the best way to stay airborne while a strong flap was the best way to get airborne. Turning was fairly easy and I was flying in no time, though it was hard to not flap like my life depended on it when I was in the air. Because of this I crashed a lot and I was pretty sore by the time we were done. We had actually been practicing most of the day and the sun was almost at the horizon when we decided to stop.

"A decent start, we can continue when you feel better. Just come find me, I live up there." She told me while pointing up to a giant cloud mansion with a rainbow waterfall.

"Okay Rainbow Dash. Thanks for the help." I told her as we parted ways.

"Don't mention it." She called as she leapt into the air to get to her house.

It took me awhile to get home since I had pulled a muscle in my leg when I came in too fast for a landing. When I eventually got home I found Twilight had brought home dinner. Surprisingly they had spaghetti and I inhaled it. I took a shower and we went to bed. I passed out once my head hit the pillow.

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><p><strong>AN: Updates may start getting more erratic. I got into Skyrim for like the third time (still on first play through) and it takes me absolutely freaking forever to do anything, so yeah. Sorry about that. I have a very strong love hate relationship (mostly hate) with that game and will probably fall out of it, again, pretty soon. See ya on the flip side.**


	16. Chapter 16: Strengthening the Bond

**A/N: This chapter is completely skippable. It's all smut. Tell me what you think if you do read it. See ya on the flip side.**

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><p><strong>Saturday<strong>

The next morning I woke up on my stomach once more but I didn't feel sore, this time. Twilight was next to me sleeping peacefully. Last night was supposed to get cold and Twilight had gone to bed in some sweats to try and keep warm, though she was still shivering. I decided to help her out and pulled her closer to me. I didn't intend to wake her up but I did. As soon as I pulled her closer to me, she turned around, wide awake, and pecked me on the check, startling me. I pulled back but I didn't account for me being on the very edge of the bed and rolled off, taking Twilight and the covers with me.

"Is it going to be something new every morning with you Caine?" Twilight asked, shivering still.

"I hope not, I don't know how many times I can fall off a bed and live." I responded.

Twilight craned her neck to look at the clock, which was running smoothly might I add (that clock had more problems than a sixty year old truck).

"Either way, we need to get up. It's already almost nine." She said as she was getting up. Too bad she didn't make it. I pulled her back down and rolled us over smiling down.

"Ooh Caine. Somepony's getting a little frisky isn't he?" I was wondering what she was talking about until I realized something. My morningwood. And it was poking Twilight in the perfect spot. Great, another fun moment ruined by testosterone. Awesome.

I quickly let her go and got up, trying to hide myself. "Sorry Twilight. I forget that I still have it sometimes." I told her, ashamed of my actions.

She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me while looking up. "Don't worry Caine. Eventually you will be comfortable and then the real fun starts." She said in a sultry tone, pushing herself against me, only serving to make me harder than I already was.

"Twilight stop. You keep doing that it will never go down." I told her, pushing her away.

"That's the point." She responded.

"I'm going to go take a shower." I sniffed the air, smelling something. I recognized the scent. "And you attend to yourself while I'm in there." I told her. Man, she was something else.

"Can't you help poor little old me?" She asked. She started walking closer to me in an alluring way. When she got to me she put her arms around my neck and pulled me into a kiss. I picked her up and worked my way over to the bed. I sat her down with a resounding squeak and pushed her onto her back, my member digging into her.

Just as quickly as I did this I, reluctantly, disengaged the kiss and started walking away, leaving a dissatisfied, and now angry, Twilight sparkle sitting on the bed. If she had been in anything else besides sweats she would have had me but alas, sweats are a turn off for me.

I made my way to the shower, thankful I had an extra set of clothes in there along with towels and wash cloths. I entered the bathroom and turned on the shower and took off my boxers. I popped out and was a little bitter at Twilight. Because of her it wouldn't go down until about the time I would put my clothes back on when I was done.

After the water had reached a comfortable temperature, I hopped in. But before I could do anything I heard the door open and then close.

"Twilight?" I asked, not entirely sure it was her. Suddenly, the shower curtain was pulled back and a naked Twilight stepped in with me. I turned, hiding myself, and her from me, at the same time.

"Twilight. What are you doing?" I asked her, angry that she would do this.

"I need you Caine. I have been waiting for so long. Now finish what you started, please." She asked as she turned me around and pushed me to the wall. I could feel every curve of her body, everything. I also felt her crotch area, it was burning hot and completely wet, even though she had only been in the shower about a minute and she hadn't really been under the stream.

"Twilight, you don't need to do this." I tried reasoning with her.

"Yes I do, I want to. I need to make you mine and the only way to do that is to mate." She whispered at me. She started grinding her self on my member. She pushed our lips together in a passionate kiss. I couldn't take it anymore, I had to have her.

I broke the kiss, startling her. "Wouldn't you want to do this in a more comfortable place?" I asked her. Her look went from one of shock to one of knowing and happiness. She nodded and got out of the shower. We weren't that wet and continued on, to the bedroom.

I sweeped her up at the door and carried her to the bed, all the while kissing her. I dropped her down on the bed with a loud thud, making her bounce a little bit.

"Oohoho, Caine." She relished.

I just got down and started doing what I thought was right but Twilight stopped me.

"No Caine. I need you, all of you, right now. Foreplay is for ponies who have time." She told me.

I complied and got up onto the bed and above her. She apparently didn't like this and flipped us over so the she was on top. I gave her a surprised look but she just smiled. I could feel her dripping with excitement and that only served to make me twitch since I was already hard as could be.

She positioned herself above me and started to slowly lower herself. When we met she gasped a little as if this was her first time too. She started pushing herself against me now. My head started to pierce her and I slide right in, she almost hilted me almost making me climax right then and there, I still had about two to three inches left.

"Twilight." I grunted out. I could see a look of determination on her face as well, as if she too was trying to fight it back.

I started bucking into her and she gasped. I could feel a flood of juices run down my member.

"Did you just..." I started, she just nodded. I started bucking again but this time Twilight shook her head. She arched her back and started lifting herself up and down onto me. I was almost paralyzed with how good it felt. I could feel her softness and tightness all at the same time, I could feel her squeezing me every so often. Eventually I overcame this sensation and started thrusting up to meet her, forcing the remainder of myself into her. I heard a loud gasp and another flood of juices run down me.

"Geez Twilight. Have you never done this before?" I asked, completely curious now. She just nodded. I was surprised at this, with all the things she had done and implied I thought she was a nympho if anything. Apparently not though.

She decided to move past this and started moving up and down again, this time faster in an effort to do to me what I was doing to her. I started thrusting up once more, matching her rhythm. Eventually I felt Twilight climax a third time, this one the most powerful, and she rode it out for about a minute and fell, limp, onto me. She looked up at me with pleading eyes and I knew what she wanted.

I flipped us over and looked down into her eyes. They were full of happiness and this only served to make me more determined.

I started thrusting and got into a rhythm. I kept going and going, wondering when it was going to be my turn to climax. I just kept going, every so often feeling Twilight climax again. At this point her head was back and she was slightly shaking. After a few more minutes I felt myself getting closer and closer, I was almost there.

"Twilight..." I warned her. She just nodded, somehow she found the strength to lock her legs around me so I couldn't pull out, forcing me to climax in her. I started going faster, almost losing my rhythm and exploded inside of her. I felt rope after rope after rope coming out of me. I didn't think I had that much in me, it was about five times the amount from when those mares had ambushed me and surprisingly it didn't start leaking out of Twilight, at least not at first. I felt myself climaxing for about a minute. Eventually I felt the back log of my seed and felt it start pouring out of Twilight. When I was done, Twilight unlocked her legs and I fell to the side of her.

"Caine" Was all she said before we passed out.


	17. Chapter 17: Preparations

**Saturday**

I woke up a few hours later to find Twilight snuggled up against me and my arms wrapped around her. I also found the bed to be a complete mess.

"Twilight, wake up." I whispered to her while shaking her gently.

"Hmm?" She responded, not wanting to.

"Twilight, the beds a mess and we have stuff to do today remember?" I told her.

This had the intended effect and she opened her eyes. I untangled our bodies and got off the bed.

"Why don't you go clean up while I put the sheets in the wash?" I asked her. She nodded and went to the bathroom.

I gathered up the sheets and brought them downstairs and to the basement where Twilight's washing machine was. It was at that moment that I realized that I was stark naked and walking around Twilight's house. I felt really weird and awkward at the same time. I hurried upstairs to find Twilight dressed and ready for the day, which only served to make me more uncomfortable.

"Hello Caine." She noticed my lack of apparel and giggled. "Why don't you take the next shower while I prepare lunch?" She asked. I nodded and went to the bathroom, remembering my clothes from earlier would still be in there. I took a quick shower and brushed my teeth with the steel wool toothbrush. I swear that these toothbrushes could scrub away existence if given the chance.

I walked downstairs to find that Twilight had indeed prepared lunch for us and was already half way done with her sandwich. I sat down and started eating mine. I had a great idea to show Twilight just how much I cared for her. I had a lot of bits saved up and wanted to do something special for her and was going to spend the rest of the day setting it up.

After we finished we said goodbye and I went about my setting up tomorrow. The first thing on my list was Rarity's boutique and I headed over.

I entered and, for once, she was at the counter.

"Hello Caine. What brings you to my boutique?" She asked.

"I'm planning something for Twilight and I need a suit for me and a dress for her. I have been working almost non-stop since I returned and have a lot of bits saved up so go all out, okay?" I told her.

She just stared at me for a second processing what I had just said. Suddenly a big smile came over her face. "Caine darling, that's fantastic! You never hear about a stallion doing something special for his mare just because. I will get right on it. When do you need it by?" She fired off.

"By tonight hopefully, tomorrow at noon at the latest. I assume you have both our measurements?" I asked her, wanting to make sure.

"Of course dear. Twilight is one of my best friends and I still remember yours from all the clothes I made you." She responded.

"Good. I would prefer it if we could keep this from Twilight so please don't tell anypony else about any of this." I implored her. She nodded a response and we said our goodbyes. I walked out and headed to the restaurant we usually went to when we went out. I walked in and up to the waiter on duty.

"I would like to make a reservation." I stated.

"For when, sir?" He asked.

"Tomorrow night, the whole restaurant." He looked like he was about to pass out from shock.

"B-b-but sir, the rest of the customers." He told me.

"To be honest, I don't care about them. Can I do this or not?" I asked him.

"Of course sir, but if you don't mind we would like a payment up front."

"I suppose that's fair." I took out my magical bank card and he ringed it up. He looked surprised by the amount inside but shook it off.

"Thank you very much sir. Your meals will be free for tomorrow and we will have everypony out by seven." I nodded and thanked him and left the restaurant. My third and final stop was a jewelry store. I walked in and saw a mare with blue hair and a crème body.

"May I help you sir?" She asked in a polite and chipper tone. Somepony likes their job _way_ too much.

"Yes I am looking for a beautiful necklace for my mare. Do you have any suggestions?" I asked her.

She nodded and went over to a display case. "These are our finest necklaces." I browsed over them till I found the perfect one. In the far right corner of the case was a necklace that was very akin to ancient egyptian necklaces that pharaohs wore. The band was a complete replica of the style while in the center sat a purple star made up of a wierd looking stone surrounded my smaller stones that were made with, I am assuming, lapis lazuli. I knew it would look perfect on Twilight. I pointed to it and the mare took it out.

I gave her my bank card and she went over it and withdrew the amount needed to pay for the necklace and handed it too me in a case designed for it. I bid her thanks and goodbye and we walked out.

As I was walking down the street, I admired the necklace. The more I looked at it the more I knew that it was always meant to be Twilight's. Now I wasn't a real sappy guy and all that junk but sometimes you just know, you know?

I was startled out of my thoughts when somepony bumped into me. I almost lost the necklace but caught it in time.

"I'm sorry I wasn't watching where I was going." We said at the same time. I recognized that voice and my eyes settled on somepony I was hoping to never see again yet at the same time longed too.

"Hi, Derpy." i said.

When she realized who it was she tried to side step me but I got in her way, determined not to let her slip through my fingers again.

"Derpy please, we need to talk this out if we want to fix our friendship." I told her.

"I don't want to fix our friendship Caine. You hurt me and I don't want anypony else to have that power again." She said, trying to get around me.

My heart almost puttered out at that line. My worst fear had come true. I had ruined her chance at happiness with anypony. I had to fix this if it killed me.

"Derpy. You need to let people into your life. One bad experience shouldn't ruin something for you. You need to move past this and get out there." I told her while gripping her shoulders so she couldn't run away.

"Leave me alone Caine. I don't want your advice nor your help." She said as she tried to get out of my grip.

I put a finger under her chin so she would have to look at me. "Derpy. Not everything is going to be like the way it is now. Even if you don't want to be friends with me anymore, at least promise me you won't swear off other ponies forever. Please, promise me at least that." I implored her. She looked into my eyes and apparently saw something as she immediately softened.

"Fine. But please Caine. I can't take looking at you. It just hurts too much right now." She asked. I pulled her into a hug which she eventually returned.

"I understand. If you do want to be friends again my door is always open." I pulled away and we went our separate ways.

I realized that I had changed since I had arrived here. I used to be someone who would trust none and hurt all. Now I was completely different. Was this world so radically different from mine that I had to change my entire being just to survive? Yes I did. And I was okay with that. I am a better person now, a happy person. Today is a good day. Time to go home and finish the preparations.

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><p><strong>AN: To be honest Caine evolved in this story without me noticing. I don't know how that is possible but it happened. I realized it while writing chapter 14 and knew I needed to find a way for him to reflect on this and the last scene seemed to be the perfect one for this. I actually have plans for Derpy in my next story once this one is done, so don't worry. Caine will always continue (okay maybe not always but you get what I mean). See ya on the flip side.**


	18. Chapter 18: Date: Dos Point O

**Sunday**

Yesterday had gone smoothly. I got everything set up, all without Twilight noticing. At the moment I was walking to Rarity's boutique to get ready. Rainbow Dash would bring Twilight to the boutique in half an hour with some excuse she would make up. They would lead Twilight into Rarity's back room, where she presents her clothing, with me in a chair admiring her.

I walked in and to the back room to see if I could find Rarity. Apparently though, it wasn't the best time. In front of me was Rarity, bending over, to pick up a towel. Let me tell you, those tails don't hide crap.

"Ah! Rarity. What are you doing?" I asked as I turned away. I heard a slight shriek and quite a bit of fumbling.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? You said you wouldn't be here till seven." Rarity angrily replied.

"I said six Rares. But why are you walking around naked on the first floor anyways?" I asked her while still keeping my head turned.

"I am decent now." She told me, a little indignantly too. I turned my head to look back at her. "The store is closed on sunday's just like any other business. You wouldn't be here till seven. And Sweetie belle is at her parents. I didn't think anypony would just walk in unannounced." She stated.

"Well I said six. Now would you kindly get some clothes on so we don't have a repeat and so I can get into my suit?" I asked.

"I will. Your suit is over there, by the stallion mannequins." She gestured over to a group of taller than usual statues. My suit was on one of them and I went to take it off while Rarity went upstairs to change.

I went behind a changing board and put it on. It fit perfectly to say the least. It looked like any other ordinary suit but at the same time in a class all its own. It was so soft I felt like I was barely wearing it. If this was what my suit looked like I was conflicted about Twilight's dress. I didn't know if I would be able to function if I saw her in it.

Rarity came down a few minutes later. We heard the door open and Rainbow call Rarity's name. She ushered me behind the changing board I had just come out from behind and went to where Rainbow and Twilight were.

I heard talking and eventually I heard them come into the room.

"Rarity, please I don't have time for this right now. I have to finish my chores at the library." Twilight begged.

"Twilight just one little look?" Rarity begged back.

"Alright fine." Twilight conceded.

I heard Rarity walk up to the stage and pull open the curtains. When they were fully open Twilight gasped.

"Rarity, who did you make this for? It's spectacular." Twilight admired.

"For you." Rarity answered.

I couldn't hear Twilight anymore, just mumbling. She seemed to be short circuiting to say the least.

"Now let's get you into it, shall we?" Rarity said. I could hear her and Rainbow move Twilight to behind the curtain, which Rarity then closed.

I came out of my hiding spot and sat in the lone chair in front of the stage waiting. A few moments later Twilight was pushed past the curtain. She had her back turned to me and was angrily whispering to Rainbow and Rarity.

Eventually she turned around and saw me in my tux. We took each other in. Her dress was a sparkling blue that didn't seem to ever stop flowing. Like the dress she wore on our first date, it hugged her body like it was custom-made for her and only her, which it was technically. Her hair was the same as it was on our first date as well. She looked gorgeous. Like my suit, hers seemed to be something ordinary yet at the same time, something legendary. I caught my mouth hanging open and closed fast enough to hear an audible click.

I got up from the chair with the necklace in my hand.

"Twilight you lo-" I was cut off as my dress shoes caught the rug, thumping my head on the stage on the way down. I was mortified to say the least. I had just ruined the atmosphere in one fell swoop.

I was dazed as I was turned over and couldn't hear anything. I could see lips moving but I couldn't make anything out.

Suddenly I felt pain on my cheek and that finally did it.

"Rainbow!" I heard Twilight yell as she glared at her friend.

"What? It did the trick didn't it?" Rainbow responded.

Twilight looked back down to me with concern in her eyes. "Caine are you alright? You have a cut above your eye." She asked.

I got up off the floor and out of Twilight's grasp. I was determined not to let this night be ruined.

"It's going to take much more than that to stop this date." I told her as I helped her up.

"Now, where were we? Oh yeah." I steadied myself.

"Twilight, you look beautiful. I set all this up for you because I wanted to start trying to pay you back." I held up the necklace for her to see in my right hand. Her eyes were fixed on it like a dog on a squirrel.

I turned her around and put it on her, albeit with a little difficulty. When I was finally done she turned around. I could see it in her eyes before she made the move. When she tried to kiss me I held her back.

"Not till we are done." She looked sad but got over it quickly.

"Now, malady. Off to our destination." I stepped backward and did a little bow and held my arm out. She took it and we said our goodbyes to Rainbow and Rarity.

We walked to the restaurant in silence. That is until a paint can fell.

I heard it fall off the ledge the painter had just put it on and moved to block Twilight but I wasn't fast enough and both of our garments were drenched in yellow paint, thankfully mine more so than hers. This just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it.

The painter apologized profusely but I decided to let it go. Hopefully Rarity could fix them.

We continued on, albeit a little stiff since it was fast drying paint.

We arrived at the restaurant just as the last couple was leaving.

"Hello sir. Your table is right this way." The waiter on duty gestured for us to follow him. As we walked to our table I could see Twilight's look of confusion.

I leaned over and whispered "I rented out the entire restaurant. We have it all to ourselves." She looked up at me with something in her eyes I didn't recognize. I waved it off and the waiter brought us to our table.

Like a true gentleman I pulled Twilight's chair out for her and scooted her in. I went around to my chair and sat down but only for a second as the chair suddenly gave way and I landed on the ground with a thud and a tearing sound. I suddenly felt a slight breeze on my lower right leg and looked down to see a shard of wood had pierced my pants leg and torn a hole in it.

I kept my anger under control for Twilight. The waiter looked like he would literally drop dead at any second. He was completely silent as he brought up another chair for me to sit on. I did a tentative push on it before I sat down. The waiter left after he gave us our menues.

We were silent as we thought. I chose a standard meal, a steak, carrots, and potatoes. Yet again Twilight only ordered a salad.

Unfortunately the rest of dinner was uneventful. We didn't talk, just ate. I tried starting up conversations but they would die out quickly. I had ruined this night for Twilight and I hated myself for it. Near the end of the meal I had decided to just end it and not get dessert.

We left once we finished and headed back home. When we got there, Twilight went upstairs and shut the door, leaving me alone downstairs.

I messed up, big time. The falls (yeah, plural. Stupid dress shoes and their utter disregard for friction), the paint, the chair, and finally dinner in general. What was supposed to be a romantic and fun night for Twilight, turned into a 'lets see who can embarrass or hurt Caine the most' night. Not to mention I had stopped Twilight on multiple occasions, before dinner, from kissing and/or hugging me, wanting to wait until we were home to make it feel more special.

I sighed and decided to go to bed and headed for the guest bedroom. It was early but there was nothing left for me to do at this point. I took off my shoes and went upstairs. I decided not to take a shower as most of the paint had gotten on my clothes. I stripped down and pulled on a pair of boxers, hanging the suit up on special hook made for it. I slipped into bed and waited till I passed out, fearing what tomorrow would bring.

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><p><strong>AN: Hey everyone. Sorry I made you wait four days for the next chapter. Been playing Skyrim. To be honest, atrocious game. Only really playing because I have too much free time. Don't be afraid to leave reviews, unless they are filled with curses or just straight up bitching, then don't because that's disrespectful. I like reviews. Yeah, I know I could have done a perfect date, and that was my original idea, but I just wanted to do something besides the obvious. Also, sorry about the short chapters as of late. One of the reasons I didn't want to write my own story was that I could come up with plots, I could do fight scenes, and I could create characters; I just wasn't confident in my ability to fill in the details of the plot, in other words, the scenes themselves. So yeah, kinda suffering from that. See ya on the flip side.**


	19. Chapter 19: Stretching the limits

**Monday**

I woke up the next morning to find a note on the door. It said that Twilight would be in Canterlot for the next two days.

I was at a loss for words. This could mean a few things, many of them bad. My mind started running through the reasons why she would go there the day after our date and not even say goodbye to me. Maybe she didn't want to see me anymore, maybe she just wanted to break up and wouldn't be coming back till I left, maybe she is depressed about something, to name just a few.

When I fell out of that tangent and calmed down I started thinking of other, more logical, reasons why she would leave. Perhaps her and the other girls were needed for something. They could just be visiting Celestia, or they are taking a vacation.

I could only think of a few reasons and most of them I could either prove or disprove by visiting Rarity.

I took a shower, got dressed, and headed out the door for Rarity's boutique. I arrived a few minutes later and walked in. Rarity was behind the counter writing in, what I assumed to be, her ledger.

"Hey Rarity. I need to talk to you." I started off.

She looked up at me and a look flashed across her face that was confusing and very foreign to me. It was only for a second though as she smiled at me after it.

"Hello Caine. What do wish to know?" Rarity asked.

"Why is Twilight in Canterlot?" Rarity looked like the question had hit her physically.

"She is visiting Celestia." Rarity managed to get out.

"But why?"

"Just to visit." Rarity answered, still nervous.

"That can't be it Rarity. What aren't you telling me?" I got close and leaned over the counter to get right in front of her. I wanted answers, I couldn't take not knowing.

Rarity didn't answer me and moved back from the counters edge and into her back room.

"What the hell?" Who just up and leaves a conversation!

I wasn't going to get anything from Rarity and it would be worthless to pursue. I decided to visit Rainbow Dash next.

I walked out the door and headed for her cloud castle. I decided to fly so I could just land on top when I got there.

When I landed I walked over and knocked on the door. It was answered by Rainbow Dash who gave me a scowl and a glare and immediately shut the door.

I knocked again, harder. She didn't come to answer the door this time.

"Rainbow!" I yelled sternly. I didn't hear any reply.

"Rainbow, you know why I'm here. Rarity wouldn't tell me and I have three other girls I can talk to, to find out what I want to know!" I yelled to her again.

She opened the door a few moments later.

"You won't get anywhere Caine. None of us will tell you. Twilight is there for her own reasons that you don't need to know." She poked me in the chest to emphasize the point.

"I can try." I replied as I turned around to take off.

"Ha, you think you can make Applejack talk or catch Pinkie pie, let alone get a word in edgewise or a specific answer? And Fluttershy went with Twilight. There isn't anypony in ponyville you can get answers from. Now leave us alone." With that Rainbow slammed the door.

I couldn't believe this! None of them would tell me anything about Twilight. Had I hurt her that bad last night? It was the only possible reason why they wouldn't give me a clear answer, or any answer for that matter. I couldn't take not knowing, something was driving me to know and if it was truly what I feared it to be, then fix it anyway I could. I set off for the train station to catch a ride to Canterlot.

I spread my wings and leaped off. I arrived a few minutes later and walked up to the ticket booth.

"Hello sir, which ticket would you like to purchase today?" The stallion in the booth asked.

"I would like to have a ticket for the next train headed to Canterlot, please."

He checked his log book and came back with a frown. "I'm sorry. We won't have another train bound for Canterlot till Thursday."

"Really? Damn it, that's too late. Is there any other way I could get there before Thursday?" I asked him.

"You could try flying. But it's a dangerous, and exhausting, way to travel. If you went fast enough you could be there probably before sundown." He suggested.

I looked back at my wings. I had to try, and if my wings got tired I could try jogging as far as I could till they were ready to go again.

"Thank you, I will try that." I said as I turned to leave, I could hear him say 'No problem, sir' behind me.

I looked for Canterlot in the distance and found it immediately. I spread my wings and did a running take off, flapping hard to get in the air.

I flew as hard and as fast as I could, I flew for what felt like hours. All I could feel as I flapped was the wind rushing through my hair and the chill of it. I felt nothing else. My eyes were dead set on Canterlot as it drew nearer.

I flew for as long as I could until I reached the city. I flew towards the castle and saw my target.

Far below me, on the castle grounds, were Celestia and Twilight. At the moment I saw her I started losing altitude quickly. I looked behind me to see my wings in shambles. Feathers all over the place in disarray. There were visible knots along the muscles on the bone and there were also quite a few feathers missing. As soon as I saw this I felt a sharp pain in my back where my wings were connected and it was unbelievable. I felt hot and cold at the same time, in all the wrong places. My vision started blurring and the tip of my nose felt like it was vibrating. I could finally feel all the sweat on my body and I was drenched to the bone, but I was dry on the inside, I could feel it.

When I was about a fifty feet before hitting the ground I heard a scream and the shouting of dozens of masculine voices. I felt a pull on my body right before I smashed into the ground at almost terminal velocity.

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><p><strong>AN: The things that happened to Caine when his wings gave out were based off of what happened to me about three weeks ago. In school, for gym, as part of our final we have to run a mile and I went all out this year (jogging for most of it, only really walked about a hundred feet of it) and when I finished I had a time of about 10:23 and I am in no way, shape, or form athletic. I may be skinny but that's only because I have the metabolism of a god. When I was done I almost passed out and managed to fuck up my ankle, which healed just a few days ago. So yeah, that happened to Caine. Physically, he was completely exhausted, his body couldn't do anymore and it gave out. I was also planning on splitting this chapter in two and am really glad I didn't because it is about 1,300 words long at the moment. Anyways, See ya on the flip side.**


	20. Chapter 20: Trial Trinity

**Twilights POV (Two weeks after Caine's arrival in Canterlot)**

Celestia and I were standing by Caine's hospital bed discussing our next move. Caine's body had fully healed for the most part.

"Are you certain my pupil?" Celestia asked me.

"I... I am." I responded.

"You do know, once I begin this trial, it can't be interrupted or ended until it is completed or failed by him?" She asked once more.

"I do. But is it really the only way to prove his worth?" I asked, afraid for him and what I felt for him meant.

"It is. We will start in one hour." She told me as she rose to leave.

"If he succeeds we will know." She said as she left the room to prepare.

"Oh Caine. Why do I have to feel this way about you?" I asked of him. I got up to follow Celestia and help set up the trial.

**Caine's POV (Trialscape)**

I woke up on a bed made of stone in really wierd clothes. They were completely white and looked like what a toga would but only with pants. I didn't have any shoes on and my arms didn't have my dragon tattoos.

"Hello?" I called out. It felt like a dream yet not at the same time. The landscape looked black yet alight at the same time, almost like it was ethereal in nature yet not. Damn this place confused the hell out of me.

"Begin trial one." I heard a voice say above me. It sounded familiar and slightly saddened at having to say those words.

After it said them a shadowy form appeared with a sword drawn. Next to me another sword, this one pure white, appeared. I grasped it and the form, I think it would be referred to as a shade, charged me.

I leapt out of the way right before it's sword would have bit into my shoulder.

"So that's how this is going to go? Well okay then, bring it." I readied myself for a sword fight. I'll admit, the one weapon I can't use effectively is a sword. Dumb right? Yeah I always thought so.

The shade charged me again and brought its sword down. I brought mine up to block and caught it. The shade used this to its advantage and kicked me backwards. I stumbled but brought the sword up in time to have it knocked out of my hands.

Without the sword encumbering me I could actually start working my magic.

The shade swung sideways and I leaped back. It brought its swing up and then down. I sidestepped and went in for the kill. When its sword hit the ground, I twisted and brought my foot up and down and smashed it from its grasp. It looked up at me and threw a punch, which I easily dodged.

We were in my element now and I was going to kick its ass. I got into a stance and waited for my aggressive foe to make his move. When he did, a roundhouse kick, I brought my arms up in an X fashion to block. After the shade regained its balance it sent another one my way, I ducked and brought my fist up and smashed it in its face when it had completed the turn.

It went flying backwards and rolled on the floor. I sprinted, grabbed my sword, and in one fell swoop, leaped and brought the sword down into its chest.

A little cruel, but badass. And besides, it made the first move. It was all in the name of self-defense.

"Trial one passed. Trial two, begin." There was that same voice, it hadn't changed.

Four alters appeared back near the stone bed. I walked over to them and looked into them. One contained a quaint little house like it was from the sixties. Another contained what looked to be a barracks. The third contained a map nailed to a board with a dagger, and the last was of a part of the justice symbol, the scales. They all seemed to be representing something, that much was obvious, but what.

I thought long and hard about what they could mean. At the moment I felt like I was missing part of my life. The last thing I had remembered was fighting with my brother, nothing else.

I went through what felt like hundreds of different possibilities where they could be connected. The broadest one I had that felt like it fit the bill was a way of life. Family man, soldier, explorer, and judge. It was the best I could come up with and it just felt right. I really wanted to pick soldier but I felt like there was more too this then just what I thought was going on. Maybe a subset?

I got thinking on that. It felt like hours before I had come to a conclusion. By that time I felt a pull in my heart for the justice symbol, but this was different from wanting to live my life that way, it was like that was something that needed fixing and that I was the one to balance it out.

With that thought in my mind I stood up and walked over and looked into the altar containing the scales. I put my hand through it and it glowed brightly before disappearing along with the others.

"Trail two passed. Trial three, begin." There was the voice but it sounded different this time, almost hopeful instead of sad. When I heard it my heart ached but I couldn't tell why. I looked over to a where the third trial was.

It was of three women, or what appeared to be women. They seemed to be some type of colorful satyr without the horns.

The first was of a women I could see into the mind of. She was the perfect personality to compliment mine, no matter what she would be able to put me in my place and we would never argue unless about something important. She wasn't petty and she was smart. Something struck a chord in me with her. The next was a stunning beauty of a women with everything a guy could want in a women, at least physically. She was perfectly proportioned and had a long slender white horn to match the rest of her body and her wings. She looked almost god-like with her spectral hair. The third was completely purple with a horn and long purple hair and pink streak running through it. She didn't seem so special compared to the other two and I ignored her. At least I tried to but something kept drawing my gaze. Something about her was making me content just looking at her. It unnerved me but at the same time I didn't care. For some reason I felt myself drawn to her more than the others once I started getting a better look. I walked up to her and kneeled for some reason.

She placed her hand on me and I melted under her grasp. Literally, melted. I panicked when I realized what was going on. First my feet and then my knees turned to what looked like molten gold and I fell on my face into it while my body kept liquefying.

The women had disappeared and suddenly a flash of white and then darkness befell me.

**Real world**

"Ow my head. How many times am I going to wake up like this?" I asked myself while rubbing my head. I opened my eyes to find the girls and princess Celestia looking at me. I also felt a chill on my legs and looked down. I realized I was on a stone bed at a large angle. So much so that if I moved to much I would slide off onto the ground. I also realized I was wearing nothing but a very revealing loincloth. I quickly covered myself with my hands.

Suddenly I got the headache of a life time when the rest of my memories rushed back to me.

I almost passed out but held it off.

"Where are we?" I asked with a dazed expression.

"We are in Canterlot castle, Caine." Celestia answered.

"What..what happened? I remember a sword and altars and you and Twilight on pedestals."

None of them answered. I looked over at Twilight and remembered the reason why I came here in the first place. I looked down, realizing that our relationship is over.

"I think that I would like to go back to ponyville now, if you wouldn't mind." I flexed my back muscles to fling myself forward enough to land on the floor. At this point I didn't care if I was covered or not. I saw my clothes over by a stone table by Pinkie pie. I walked over and started putting them on.

I turned around to see everypony staring at me.

"Well, I guess I'll be going. By everypony." I waved at them as I left. I didn't care what happened. I felt defeated and that things couldn't get worse, all I wanted to do was lay down in a bed. I didn't have anywhere to go, I realized. Maybe my boss would let me bunk with him for a while.

When I walked through another door, this one lower than the other, I bonked against it but I didn't feel anything, just my head going back. I reached up and my hand grasped around something that felt like sea shell. Startled I ran down the hallway towards a closed window to see if I could see my reflection.

When I got there I was happy I could, but barely. When I saw myself, my breath left my body. Atop my head was a long, grey, horn. Much like Celestia's. I tried activating it but didn't know how. To be honest when I couldn't, I lost interest.

"Better for all I suppose. I guess now I have to hide my wings." I said to myself. I didn't know any unicorns besides Twilight and Rarity so I suppose my horn is useless for the time being.

I continued to walk down the hall and out of the castle. I found my bank card in my pocket and headed for the train station.

**Twilight's POV (After Caine leaves castle)**

"Twilight, why didn't you tell him?" Fluttershy asked me.

"I was about to, but when he looked at me I couldn't do it. He seemed so defeated and sad. I think it was because of me. Maybe he doesn't want to be together." I stated.

"Preposterous." Rarity humphed.

"Yeah, he passed the trial with flying colors. Only a pony in love could do that." Applejack agreed.

"Yeah silly. Why wouldn't he. He even got a horn to go with his stupendous wings and earth pony strength." Pinkie pointed out.

"Twilight. He loves you, and you love him. There is no reason you shouldn't be together. Don't miss this chance." Rainbow said. She shocked me with this statement.

"They are all right, Twilight. You must go to him. He is headed to ponyville, his heart is broken and only you can fix it." Celestia told me.

"Broken heart? But why is it broken?" I asked her.

"That, you will have to find out for yourself. You will have to wait till tomorrow though. Caine will most likely be boarding the train and there are too many of you to transport at once over such a long distance and I don't have the power to transport you one by one." Celestia advised.

"But I need to go to him Princess." I begged her.

"In the morning my pupil. Today has been an emotional ride for everypony. A good nights sleep will do everypony good." With that Celestia walked out of the room with us in tow.

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><p><strong>AN: Yeah I always hated symbolism so I am not great with it. It annoys me at almost every turn (thank the Great Gatsby for that) so I had a hard time with the trials. If you haven't figured out why Caine has become an alicorn I will explain it to you. Or as much as I can without revealing the plot. If the trials need to be redone just say so and if I get enough requests then I'll redo them. I like getting reviews, especially criticism (all criticism is good, even bad criticism, as long as it helps you grow) any tips or tricks you have for me feel free to share. I am also open to any questions involving anything about the story, obvious exceptions of course. This chapter is also above 2,000 words so booyah to me. See ya on the flip side.**


	21. Chapter 21: Neat little Bow

**Same day (Monday)**

I had boarded the train and was on my way home. While I was travelling I was thinking of what I would do when I got back. I don't think I would be able to set up a life there and each time I had tried doing something besides living a normal life had ended in some type of disaster. I was confused most of them time in this world and now I was completely alone. There was no way Rarity would talk to me in any way other than business. I didn't want to keep pestering Zecora. Derpy had gone her own way and I hadn't really taken the time to make nice with anypony else. I think my boss liked me but that could only go so far.

A few hours later the train pulled into the station and it was around midnight. I headed for the store and found it locked and decided to see where my boss lived, the only problem was that I didn't know where he lived and everypony else was asleep. I sighed and decided to try to rig back up my camp. I didn't care at this point, I was out of options. No friends, no family, and no place to go. It really couldn't get worse in my mind. Hell, even death meant that I didn't have to deal with this anymore.

I arrived at the barrier around the town. When I tried going through it my horn stopped me. No matter how hard I pushed I couldn't get through. I knew it was my horn because it glowed every time I had touched it. I didn't know why I could enter but not exit. Was I stuck here?

I was starting to get angry but as soon as it came it just died out.

"What is wrong with me?" I whisper screamed while holding my hands to my head in sheer disbelief of the crap this world put me through and how much of it I fell for. It couldn't get any worse so I decided to head to the park to bunk in a tree. When I got comfortable in the branches I fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up to a slap in the face and a blinding light.

"OW! What the hell?!" I yelled as my eyes adjusted. In front of me sat a glowering Rainbow Dash.

"What's wrong with you?" I accused her while rubbing my cheek.

"Get out of the tree and follow me." She responded.

"Why? Going to punish me for alienating Twilight?" I asked bitterly.

"What? No you idiot. Just follow me." She said. She turned around and zoomed off. I didn't even lift a finger to follow her. Instead I went the opposite direction to see if I could fly over the barrier. Turns out there is a small hole at the very top that I could fit through. Once out of it I zoomed off out over the Everfree.

A few minutes later I heard wing flaps behind me. I looked back to see Rainbow rocketing toward me with her arms outstretched.

Without thinking I barrel rolled into the nearest group of trees for a crash landing to get away from her. I heard her zoom past me overhead. I started running through the trees. I didn't know why but I needed to get away from her. Just seeing her made me sad.

I kept running till I starting slightly panting and stopped. I didn't hear anything and decided to climb a tree to see if I could spot her. Sure enough I could see her doing a sweeping pattern about a mile away.

"Good." I whispered to myself. I looked around and saw town about two miles away past Rainbow.

"Crap." I whispered again.

I climbed down and started running at towards the left so that I could get away from Rainbow but still get to town just in more time. When i finally got to the point where I could turn towards town I heard a boom. I looked up to see Rainbow rocketing towards me.

"Are you shitting me?" I cursed the name of the heavens above right now.

Rainbow slammed into me with full force and we made a crater into the ground.

"Now...we are... going back... to ponyville. You hear...me?" She wheezed while laying on top of me.

"No." I wheezed back.

"Why not?" She practically begged.

"Because I don't want to, at least not with you or any of the other girls. To be honest I don't know why you would want me to. Just leave me alone." I snarled at her. She looked hurt almost but quickly recovered. She was about to say something before I rolled us so I was on top. I pushed her down deeper while pushing myself up off her with my arms. I quickly got to my feet and took off. I was stopped by a blue aura which looked familiar.

"Caine!" I heard a voice yell.

"Rarity?!" I called back, searching for her.

"What are you doing? Come back to ponyville with Rainbow Dash and I this instant!" She yelled.

"No Rares! I won't deal with the hazing and ridicule by you girls!" I shouted back. I felt something brewing in my mind when I said the last part and with a pulse the aura around me dissipated and I was free to fly off. But before I could even flap forward a lasso caught me and went taught, pulling me to the ground. I landed with a hard thud and looked up to see Applejack holding the other end of the rope.

"Seriously? Why can't you let me be?" I asked as I struggled against the ropes.

"And what is this made off? Spider silk?" I asked.

"Might as well be. A few years ago Twilight enchanted it for me to be near indestructible by creatures and since you aren't all pony I guess it works on you too." She replied.

"Now for your other question, wait and find out. We have a surprise for you." She said as she started dragging me towards town. I let my head loll in defeat as they dragged me the two and half miles to ponyville.

We arrived a few hours later. I must have woken up later than I thought because it was already almost night-time. They dragged me to Twilight's library. When I realized where we were going I struggled as hard as I could. I couldn't face Twilight, not after what I did.

"Calm down Caine. We aren't going to hurt you." Rarity assured me. I didn't believe her.

Rainbow opened the door and Applejack pulled me through the door.

"We got him Twilight." Applejack said.

"Thank you Applejack." Twilight said. I couldn't see her which was fine by me. I closed my eyes in defeat.

"Caine why did you run?" She asked me.

"You know why." I responded coldly.

"No, I don't. Why are you so upset? Do you.. do you hate me?" She asked with sadness in her voice. I started to get angry. She had sent her friends to capture me just so she could torment me with redundant questions.

"I could ask the same question!" I yelled as I turned my head to try to find her, when I couldn't I closed my eyes again and tucked my chin back into my chest.

"I don't hate you Caine. Why would you think that?" She asked. It almost sounded like she was crying.

"First I try to give you a great night but I ruin it completely. You then leave for Canterlot and no pony would tell me why, Rainbow practically confirmed that you had dumped me. I flew there to try to find you and fix what I had done and to fix us. Next thing I know I wake up on a stone bed with all of you staring at me and you looking so indifferent to why I was there and the rest of the girls had varying mixes of creepy smiles and frowns. I come back to ponyville so I couldn't hurt you anymore and because it hurt too much to be around you. I slept in a tree just to be awoken by a slap from the Rainbow juggernaut over there. I try to leave ponyville and when I finally do, I get attacked by them. When they finally subdued me they dragged me back here like a troublesome calf on a farm. You then start asking me questions to which you already know the answers. Now tell me Twilight Sparkle, why do you think I think that?" My rant had gone from angry to depressed throughout and I realized that I had a few tears in my eyes. I quickly wiped them away as best I could on my shoulders.

I heard silence for a long while and looked up to see the three girls frowning down at me. I could finally see Twilight. She looked absolutely depressed and was actively crying.

She walked over to me and sat me up. She then surprised me. Instead of telling one of the girls to throw me out she hugged me. I tried struggling out of her grip but with Applejack's lasso I couldn't do much.

"Twilight please, just leave me alone." I asked her.

"Caine, you are the densest stallion I have ever met." Twilight said. She motioned for the girls to leave. She undid Applejack's lasso and turned me to face her.

"I never broke up with you. Something that night had awakened in me and I didn't know what to do. I had a suspicion of what it was and told the girls. I didn't want you finding out till I was completely sure and knew that you would go asking the girls, which is why I took Fluttershy. When I arrived Princess Celestia and I talked. We talked all night and for most of the day until you arrived. When I saw what that crash had done too you I almost broke down. I didn't think you could recover. That's when I knew. When you finally started healing Celestia said that you needed a trial. Since you are an alicorn Celestia needed to make sure that you could love another pony and she gave you the trial. When you woke up you looked so defeated and I was scared of what you would say so I didn't say anything myself. After you left we talked and I knew what needed to be done. We arrived earlier this morning and I asked the girls to go out and find you. You know the rest." She said as she looked into my eyes.

"Caine, I love you." She said. She then jumped me with a kiss, putting her arms around my neck and sending us to the floor. I was startled to say the least. Eventually I returned the kiss and it was full of passion. We eventually pulled apart.

I knew now why I had fully realized my alicorn nature. Everything was a test. When I defied my brother I learned the power of free will and that with it people could move mountains. When I had learned to trust myself I realized that with friends and yourself behind you, you could touch the sky. When I had done the trials I had realized that I had loved and with love magic happens.

"I love you too, Twilight Sparkle." I spoke back to her. We went upstairs and fell asleep in each others warm embrace.

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><p><strong>AN: Huhn? Huhn? Come on that was good. No? Well then screw you too. In all actuality I think I tied things together nicely, albeit a bit contrived; but that's what happens when someone is as dense as Caine, he makes up his own stories with a few facts. I know, I have a friend like that. As always (past few chapters) any criticism is appreciated (preferably without enough cursing to give satan whiplash). And I swear to god if anyone brings up that barrel role/aileron role shit I will bust some nuts. You don't have nuts then I will bust your... I'll think of something but it will be devastating! As of right now I haven't reread over this so PM if a line or something doesn't make sense, I'll probably do it tomorrow. See ya on the flip side.**


	22. Chapter 22: Magic and Dragons

**Thursday**

Yesterday had seen Twilight and I spending the day together and making plans for the summer and receiving a visit from Celestia. We had set up a strict schedule that catered to both my work schedule, my training with Dash (which was going swimmingly by the way), and my new magic lessons while still giving us free time. Damn she was efficient, so much so that she almost scared me.

Today was the day where I learned how to tap into my magic and see what I could do. Celestia had told me that, since I was an alicorn, my magic would already be stronger than most unicorns at my age and that, at the moment, I could very well rival Twilight in sheer power. Being an alicorn had its perks I have to admit.

Right now Twilight was setting up the library for magic practice while I stood in a corner watching her work. I would be helping but the few times I had tried to, she yelled at me and told me to get back in the corner. I felt like a three-year old who got caught stealing cookies.

"And finished." Twilight said as she stood up straight and clapped her hands together to get rid of dust that had sat for years gathering. She almost never cleaned what she didn't have to.

"Can I finally move?" I asked with mock fear.

She rolled her eyes in response and gestured for me to come over. I did as she gestured and walked over.

She grabbed my hands and looked up at me.

"Now, since this is your first willing magic usage, it may be a little chaotic. That's why I'm holding your hands, anything you put out I should be able to contain." She looked a little doubtful of her own abilities but continued none the less.

"To tap into your magic, envision trying to move your finger but instead of your finger it's your horn. Pretend that it is like a sixth appendage."

I closed my eyes and focused on my horn, trying to move it. I didn't feel anything for a few minutes but kept trying anyways.

"Hmm." Twilight said after a few more minutes.

"Let's try something else. May I?" She asked as she reached towards my horn. I didn't see the harm in it so I nodded.

When she grabbed my horn my knees almost buckled. The sensation was overwhelming, I felt hot and cold, dizzy and alert, awake and asleep, and a whole other myriad of sensations at once. I felt like my brain was working in overdrive and that I was physically regulating everything in my body.

"Twi...light" I choked out.

She immediately let go and an explosion rang in my ears and I saw a white light, blinding me.

I fell to the floor limp and almost unconscious. When my eyes finally worked again I saw Twilight across the room covered in white dust. She looked to be unconscious. I couldn't move at all and just laid there waiting for either Twilight to wake up or for somepony to find us.

As I was slipping into unconsciousness from the drain of trying not to, the door opened and in walked a green and purple blur. As it rushed over to Twilight I tried to move and slipped away.

**Saturday**

I opened my eyes to see I was in a hospital room yet again.

"God dammit. Seriously? Might as well rent a permanent room, I'm here so much." I said angrily to no pony. I really was tired of waking up in a hospital, you can only do that so many times.

I saw a button near my bed and reached out to push it. When I did, I heard a buzzing sound and in walked a nurse a few minutes later.

"I see you're finally awake? Good, your friends have been worried about you and your mare." She said cheerily as she scribbled something onto a clipboard.

"Is she okay?" I asked, worried for Twilight.

"She is fine, just unconscious. That magical detonation inside your house really did a number on your mind. Good thing one of you was able to contain it or you might have been reduced to vegetables." She responded in that same cheery voice, seemingly mocking me.

"Do you know when she will wake up?" I asked.

"Probably some time today. Would you like me to send in your friend...Rarity?" She asked as she checked her clipboard.

"Yes, thank you." With that she left.

A few moments later Rarity walked in.

"My my Caine, you sure do like hospitals." Rarity said when she walked in.

"You made a funny. Ha ha ha." I responded monotonously.

"Oh don't be such a spoil sport darling. You and Twilight are in good health and best of all, Spike is back." She said happily.

"Spike? Isn't he Twilight's dragon friend?" I asked, recognizing the name but not remembering much else.

"Indeed. In fact, he is the one who found you two after your little... mishap." She sat down in one of the chairs.

"So that's what I saw. How long is he staying in town?"

"He said he wanted to move back in if it was alright with Twilight. He said he had explored most of Equestria and was homesick." She replied nonchalantly, though I could tell she was excited. I wondered why until I remembered our little conversation so long ago.

"Are you..." I let my question hang off, not wanting to offend her yet curious.

She looked confused for a moment but realization dawned on her.

"Well I... Hmm... I don't know to be honest." She said as she picked up a magazine to get away from the question. I wasn't going to let her go that easily.

"Rares. You have to tell him, or at least try to reconcile." I told her.

"But I can't Caine. I hurt him. I was the reason he left in the first place. I assume his real reason for coming back is really just to check up on Twilight." She said, exasperated.

"Rarity I-" I started.

"I have things to do Caine. I bid you farewell." She got up and left.

I was starting to get tired of her just ending conversations like that.

"Well what now?" I asked myself.

After a few minutes of pondering I tried moving my feet. Luckily they still worked. I got up off of the bed and found my clothes on a chair in the back of the room. I donned them and walked out. I wandered the halls till I came upon the stairs. I descended them and went over to the reception desk.

"Hello ma'am. I am here to check out and also to find out which room Twilight Sparkle is being held in." I was counting on the Equestrian hospitals trait of being lax to the point of laziness to help me out, luckily they stuck with the trend of not giving a care.

"Here you are sir, sign here and here." She pointed to dotted lines, which I signed.

"And Miss Twilight Sparkle is in room twenty-three." She smiled at me as she took the pen and clipboard back.

"Thank you." I called to her as I walked away.

I once again started wandering the halls and eventually found Twilight's room. When I entered I saw her sitting up in bed with a large, bipedal reptile standing next to her.

"Caine!" She exclaimed happily.

"Hi Twilight. How are you feeling?" I asked as I walked over to her and giving her a hug.

"I am doing fine. I should be able to leave whenever. Oh, I almost forgot. Caine, Spike. Spike, Caine." She introduced me to the reptile.

We looked each other over. He was tall, almost as tall as me, with a thin frame. He had green ridges running along his head and his back (he wasn't wearing a shirt). He had purple scales everywhere except along the bottom of his arms and his chest and stomach, which were green instead. He had a large, and long, tail behind him with the same pattern that adorned his body. His face looked more like a reptiles then a humans, unlike the ponies whose upper bodies were completely human for the most part.

As we were looking each other over I noticed his body tense up and a small scowl adorn his lips.

"May we talk in the hallway?" He said in a deep voice, not at all what I expected from his gangly frame.

"Sure." I responded. We walked into the hallway and shut the door. As I turned around I felt hands grip my shirt and hoist me up and into the wall.

"The he-" I was cut off with a hand to the mouth. This guy was cruisin for a bruisin. I wondered if reptiles bruised or if that was a hairless mammal thing.

"I don't know why you're here or when you got here but I love Twilight like a sister and if you hurt her I will rip you apart." Oh so that's what this is about. The old 'you hurt my sister I kill you' shtick. Yeah, I wasn't going to be pushed around by Spike just because he and Twilight grew up together.

I grasped his wrists and started twisting, making him drop me to the floor. I kept twisting till I forced him to the ground. The guy was strong, I'll give him that, but not strong enough.

I leaned down and whispered into his ear. "If I do hurt her, I'll give you the knife." When I brought my head back up he looked up at me, confused. I let him go and his hands shot to his wrists, albeit a little awkwardly since his mind didn't know which wrist to rub first. He stood back up and looked me in the eye.

"I love Twilight, dragon. If I ever hurt her, which I won't, then I will let everypony who is close to her do what ever the hell they want to me. Got it?" I asked in a threatening voice.

He nodded confidently.

"Now, we got off to a bad start. My name is Caine." I held out my hand to shake. Spike grasped it firmly and we shook. "Spike." After we made nice we walked back into Twilight's room.

"What were you two doing out there?" She asked with suspicion evident in her voice.

"Nothing." We answered at the same time.

She looked a little taken aback but let it slide.

For the next hour we talked about random things mainly. Though Twilight did explain to me why we were in the hospital in the first place. Apparently my horn is extremely sensitive, like a foals, and with Twilight full on grasping it, it over reacted. It tried to protect itself by sending out a magical discharge but this is the defense mechanism for adult unicorns. Basically my horn was the equivalent of a man-child: The mentality of a child with the body of an adult. So the discharge was sloppy and, according to Twilight, undercharged. Good thing too since if it was any more powerful Twilight said it could have killed both of us.

Eventually Twilight felt well enough to leave and we checked out. Twilight was still a little wobbly on her feet so I carried her back home, it was almost night-time while we were walking.

When we got there I brought her to the bedroom, much to her protest, and laid her in her bed.

I convinced her to get some more rest eventually and joined Spike back down stairs.

"So Spike, how long will you be staying?" I asked him as I sat down on the couch opposite him on the other side.

"To be honest, I was only planning on staying for as long as Twilight needed me. I had heard about you and wanted to check you out but you seem alright. I actually found somepony while out traveling and will probably head back out by Wednesday if that is alright with you?" He asked as if actually asking for my permission.

"I don't mind." I said, still a little shocked that he had actually asked permission from me to stay with Twilight, who he loved as his own sister.

"I actually need to ask you some questions." I told him. I thought that if anypony could give me answers, it would be Spike. It felt wierd talking to any other stallion about these things and mares were out of the question.

"Go ahead." He responded.

"Have you been told why I'm an alicorn?" I asked him. If I was going to ask these questions I needed to start from the beginning.

"Wait. You're the alien?" He asked with shock.

"Yeah." I responded.

"Okay then, just... give me a moment." He said as he raised a claw and turned away in thought. Finally somepony that actually found it wierd to be talking to an alien! I was beginning to think this entire country was jaded beyond belief.

"Ok, I'm good. Continue." He said, a few moments later.

"So as you know I'm an alien. Thus I come from a completely different world and culture. Where I come from there are no gender ratios, it's always one to one for the most part. Because of this, and because of my kinds past, the stallions have been in control for almost all of recorded history. This puts me in a difficult situation since this culture's gender roles are fairly reversed compared to mine, yet at the same time somewhat similar and I just need a few things clarified." I told him. He pondered for a moment.

"Ask away." He said finally.

I took a minute to get my thoughts together.

"Okay, the herd thing. I get the reasoning but I don't get the inner workings."

"I thought you were a one mare stallion?" He asked.

"I am but it is just so confusing for me. Like I said, in my world it's one to one and for the most part something like a herd is frowned upon."

"Basically it's one stallion and as many mares as he can handle. Essentially, if you have enough mares you don't have to do anything. They clean, cook, work, all that stuff. You don't have to lift a single finger. The only rule for the stallion is that he must be able to satisfy each and every mare completely. If he can't the mare may look for another stallion." He finished.

"Well that cleared some things up, thank you. My next question is: Are there any customs I should be aware of?" I asked. I really didn't want to offend Twilight in some way.

"There aren't many that a monogamous relationship like yours has. I guess it's just up to you and Twilight." He said. Well that helped.

"Okay. A few weeks ago, I think,-" I saw his confused expression.

"I have been unconscious a lot." He nodded his understanding and I continued.

"A few weeks ago I had a little _run in_, shall we say, with some mares. When Twilight found me she threw two of them out of the alleyway and the other said something along the lines of me being under Twilight's protection. What did she mean by that?" I asked him.

He thought about this for a moment.

"Well, Twilight is a high-ranking mare in ponyville and I assume that the mare she was talking to was lower than her. When a stallion and mare are together, the mare becomes the stallions protector and keeps other mares she does not think are worthy, away from him." He responded. He sounded unsure.

"But?" I asked.

"That is just what seems most likely. There could be dozens of other reasons she said it the way she did. I haven't got a clue as to the actual reason. I would have had to have been there."

"Thanks anyways." I surprisingly didn't have anymore questions.

"Hmm, thought I had a lot more questions." I said aloud.

"Well, if that's all, I am going to head to bed. Night Caine." He said as he got up and headed upstairs.

I was pretty tired myself and decided to hit the sack as well. I went upstairs, got ready, and plonked down next to Twilight and fell asleep.

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><p><strong>AN: The clichés. The references. They hurt! But not enough to make me stop. Sorry for not posting another chapter for a week. School has been pretty needy and the party I went to on Friday didn't end well. Just started feeling better today actually. If you are allergic to something DON'T KEEP INTERACTING WITH IT. I learned that lesson the hard way. I was actually spending the night and had to go home around four in the morning (never went to bed in the first place, go cards against humanity!) with barely functional lungs and a migraine to rival being shot in the head. I then spent almost all of yesterday sleeping. Anyways, constructive criticism is appreciated. See ya on the flip side.**


	23. Chapter 23: Let's try this again

**Sunday**

"Oh Spike, that's amazing. So when can I meet her?" Twilight asked Spike. He had just told her about his girlfriend while we were eating breakfast.

"Soon, hopefully. We both haven't had much of a home the past few years and we have been dating awhile so we hope to settle down at some point, maybe even here." He responded.

"So what's she like?" Twilight asked him while leaning over her cereal bowl to get closer.

"I'm not going to tell you Twilight, you have to wait to meet her like everypony else. Besides, if I did, you might make up your own little picture of who she is in your head. You did the same with Princess Celestia and you still haven't dropped it, even after you met her personally."

"He has a point." I put in my own two cents which only served to get me a slap on the shoulder.

"Hey now. Don't want to break me, do you?" I asked her.

"Oh grow up." She said. Damn, she really didn't like not knowing.

"Please Spike?! I really want to know." She pleaded with him.

"Twilight I said no." He told her with firmness. She sat back in her chair to continue eating with an unhappy 'fine'.

I snickered at her frustration which only served to earn me a sharp glare. That shut me right up and I focused on my food. Sometimes Twilight felt more like my mother then my girlfriend but I was okay with that.

"So Twilight, what are you and Caine doing today?" Spike asked after a while.

"We are going to try to get in some more magic practice today but other than that, not much else." She answered him.

"Sounds good." He said.

"Spike, while Twi and I are doing that, why don't you go visit the girls. I am sure they would want to talk with you. The doctor said you didn't leave the hospital while Twilight and I were unconscious and you didn't talk to anypony while you were there." I said to him. He looked up at me with a slight glare in his eyes but this was quickly cut off by Twilight.

"That's a great idea Caine. I am sure the girls would love to catch up with you Spike. You have been away so long and you never wrote." Twilight said with hidden sadness.

"Fine, I'll go." He relented.

"Thank you, Spike." Twilight smiled at him. We ate in silence after that.

After we were done, Spike left to go visit Pinkie first and Twilight and I set up for some magical practice.

We got in the same position last time, holding each others hands.

"Ok, last time didn't end well." She started. I gave her a 'no shit' look.

"But that isn't nearly enough of a reason to stop trying. You have a horn and you should know how to use it." She said with determination.

"I want you to try and use your magic like last time." I closed my eyes and concentrated. I envisioned my horn glowing and moving things around. I heard Twilight gasp and opened my eyes.

What I found startled me and I lost concentration. Everything in the air around us, and including us, fell to the ground with a thud. Twilight landed on me and I landed on some books.

"Twilight." I groaned out.

"What happened?" I asked as she lifted her head up off my chest.

"You used magic, Caine. A lot of magic too." She said as she laid her head back down.

"What are you doing?" I asked, still slightly out of breath.

"When you started up the levitation spell, I thought it was something different and tried to stop it, but it overpowered me and you started levitating almost everything in the room. Including us." She answered.

"So what exactly does that mean for me?" I asked, curious.

"You very well may be stronger than Princess Luna if not Princess Celestia herself. I have never felt that much power go into one little spell. You don't even look tired, you also didn't look like you were having any trouble casting it either." She explained to me while still laying on top of me, making this a very awkward conversation.

"Well, I feel tired." I told her, completely ignoring the fact that I may be stronger than Celestia.

"Somepony needs to pick this up." She tried getting up but collapsed back down on top of me, winding me again.

"Alright, Caine is not a bed." I said as I rolled her off and stood up. She appeared to be almost sleeping but her eyes weren't closed.

"Jeez Twilight. That tired you out that much?" I asked.

"I used my own power to try to suppress yours, and in doing so, completely drained myself." She said as she was falling asleep. I could feel my own eyes drooping. I leaned down and scooped her up and brought her upstairs. I laid her down and collapsed on the bed myself.

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><p><strong>AN: And another chapter. I am planning to kick things up in the next few chapters and I am also planning to finish up the story somewhere around chapter 30, so expect the ball to get rolling. After I finish this story I will continue working on my other one and occasionally writing the chapters to this story's 'spiritual' successor (don't know if that is the right usage for the term but you will get my meaning when I post the first chapter sometime in the next few months). Come on people, review. For me? No, well dammit. I like getting them. Preferably not a bunch of spam like 'post the next chapter' or 'I like the story/story sucks', explanations preferably for broad statements such as those. But anything else is fair game, you want to comment on a chapter, go ahead or other things (preferably pertaining to the story). These chapters always seem longer when I am writing them but when I reread them, it takes like three minutes. Is that the same for you guys? Anyways, see ya on the flip side.**


	24. Chapter 24: Unsupervised

**Sunday (A few months later)**

The past few months had seen Twilight and I growing closer than ever before. It was almost October here and Twilight said the next heat was right around the corner, which I wasn't all that excited about. I had steadily become better at using my magic and was now a fairly formidable foe by adept unicorn standards, which I was excited about. I was also pretty good at flying now, too. I actually stood a decent chance of winning against Dash in a race. My work schedule had died down a lot with me only going in for the new minimum two days a week but I had a lot saved up so it wasn't a problem. Spike had said little about his girlfriend to both Twilight and I and it had made her a walking disaster area. He had left a few days after he had arrived and had promised to bring his girlfriend by the end of next summer. All in all, I think my life was pretty great right now.

"Caine!" I heard Twilight call out from inside. Right now I was chopping wood for the coming winter months.

"Get in here!" She sounded kind of pissed.

I rushed in to see what I had done this time.

"Yeah Twilight?" I asked as I walked in.

Twilight had an angry expression on her face, but when I walked in, it turned into a different one I had seen all too often lately. I was shirtless and she was staring at my chest. I had suspected she had started going into heat but she hadn't tried anything out of the norm, yet.

"Twilight?" I asked to snap her back to reality.

She tore her eyes from me and looked up with a questioning gaze. It soon turned to recognition then anger.

"We need to talk." She said. She pointed to a chair, which I sat down in.

She came over and climbed onto my lap and put her arms around my neck.

"Where will you be for the heat?" She asked with warning in her voice.

"Here. Why?" I really didn't know why she would ask that, where else would I be?

"Good." She said and then pulled me into an aggressive kiss.

When we broke I was very confused. "What's wrong with you Twilight?" I asked her.

"You're mine Caine and I am not going to let any other mare have you." She said with force and a glare.

"Alright alright, it was just a question. Is that all because I need to get back to chopping wood." She nodded but didn't get up.

"Twilight?" I sounded.

"Hmm? Oh right, sorry." She apologized. She got off and went back to what ever she was doing before she called me in. I got up and went back outside to chop some more wood. Why we didn't just buy it pre-chopped, I didn't know. I chopped wood for the rest of the day and when night rolled around, I went upstairs to get ready for bed. I found Twilight already asleep and curled up, shivering.

"Damn, you're just like an old lady sometimes, you know that?" I whispered.

"I heard that." She said without opening her eyes.

"Sorry, but you are sometimes." I told her.

She opened her eyes to glare at me.

"Just get in here and warm me up." She said as she lifted up the blankets to reveal her naked body.

"I wonder why you're cold, you're super hot." I told her, which earned me a slight grin as I crawled in.

"Why are you naked anyways?" I asked her when we got comfortable.

"Because clothes get tangled at night." She lied while snuggling up closer.

I chuckled. "Night Twilight." I told her. "Goodnight Caine." And with that we fell asleep.

**Monday**

I woke up the next morning ready to do some chores. I took off the covers and stood up to get ready. I noticed that Twilight had already woken up and gotten ready for the day. I did the same with the usual morning routine.

However, when I went downstairs I found a note from Twilight telling me she had done everything and to take the day off. I wasn't happy about this. What was I supposed to do all day? My boss had already left town, Twilight was gone, and everypony else that I knew was getting ready to ride out the heat. I didn't even have a clue as to where Twilight even was. I didn't want a repeat of last time so I decided to just stay put and fiddle with things around the tree.

It ate up about two hours of my time, thankfully, but it was still only about noon. To be honest, I was a little scared to go outside. The official day the heat started was this Wednesday but individual mares could start days, or even a full week, early. As an example, Twilight had said that Fluttershy went into heat a full month before the rest of the town once but at the same time said that was very rare. So, bottom line, I didn't want to go outside at all.

It took me about half an hour to get fed up with waiting and I decided to see if I could fly over to Rarity's. Maybe if I went high enough ponies wouldn't see me till I landed.

I went to the balcony and took off straight up. I flew up high and tried to find the boutique, good thing it looked like a giant cupcake from the air. I spotted it and dived down landing in Rarity's backyard.

I went up and knocked on her door which was answered by Rarity herself.

"Hey Rares." I greeted her.

"Oh uh... hello... Caine. What are you... doing here? Shouldn't you be with...Twilight?" She asked while looking like she urgently had to go somewhere.

"Are you okay Rarity?... Wait, are you in heat?" I asked her, suddenly getting slightly terrified.

She nodded her head.

"Do I go or..." I actually didn't know at the moment. Last time I left, Twilight had thought I hated her.

"Yes, please Caine. Before I do something unbecoming of Twilight and my's friendship." She said while biting her lip.

I turned around and took off into the air.

I couldn't believe Rarity was in heat. Twilight told me that Rarity was usually the last one to go into heat. I now questioned why Twilight knew so much about her friend's heats and why she had told me almost every little detail that I would let her.

I flew back to the tree as quickly as I could. I landed on the balcony, walked in, and quickly closed the doors behind me.

"Caine!" I heard an enraged Twilight yell from downstairs. "What now?" I asked myself.

I quickly hurried down the stairs. When my foot hit the first floor, I was basically tackled by what could only be Twilight.

**Oof **"Twilight, what's wrong?" I asked her, a little irritated at the moment.

"You weren't here." She yelled at me.

"I thought you left me again." She almost cried. She has to be messing with me. I don't know how you change emotions that fast.

"You left and I got bored, I went to visit Rarity only to find out she was already in heat. I was only gone, at the most, five minutes." I reassured her.

"Well don't do it again. You aren't allowed to leave this house until the end of the heat." She stated as she pulled away from me.

"Seriously? There is only so much we can talk about and reading too much gives me a headache. What am I going to do for an entire week?" I asked her incredulously.

"Me." She simply stated.

"Oh" I realized. I am a moron sometimes, I really am.

"Now lets finish up here. I finished most of it this morning but there is still some left." She told me.

"Alright." I responded.

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><p><strong>AN: To the guy who asked about the ending (Can't respond to you directly unless you have an account on the site). The ending could be both, it really depends on your perspective of it and if I manage to write it the way I want to. But either way, there will be a fight, it's the ending of the story and where everything else comes together. Don't worry everyone I haven't forgotten the loose ends I have created (well most of them, I probably don't remember all of them). The next chapter is definitely going to include the heat but I am conflicted about writing a lemon for it. On one hand, I don't really feel like it because I am just that lazy. On the other, you guys might want it and I might change my mind by the time I start it. I also don't know whether to include several or just one. Having just one seems wierd and having multiple doesn't seem to have any meaning other than writing my own clop (no I don't clop to my own lemons, that would be wierd as hell and kind of redundant in my mind, nor do I clop in general). Give your opinions, preferably, in a PM. I don't feel like having the review section full of "WRITE SOME DAMN LEMONS" and other assorted phrases. I am finally done with skyrim (thank the heavens above, because fuck that game. I hate _myself_ for playing it) and am back to new vegas, which will probably take up even more of my time than skyrim (maybe) because I like it a lot more. Too bad that game also has a glitch that basically breaks an entire aspect of it for me, but in my world I learn not to win so I deal with it and I can avoid it (kind of). Anyways, enough with my rambling, see ya on the flip side.**


	25. Chapter 25: The Gods

**A/N: Beginning is mostly smut. Skip down to the Thursday line to skip it. Also, shits kicking off.**

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><p><strong>Wednesday<strong>

"Caine, oh Caaaaiiinneee." I heard someone coo softly into my ear.

I didn't want to wake up at all and I tried to swat them away. When my hand felt nothing I brought it back down to resume my slumber.

"Caine. Wake up." The voice said in my ear again.

"I don't want to." I said as I turned and buried my face in the pillow.

I felt something in the bed shift and climb almost on top of me. I then felt I hand slide down my body towards by hips and under me. I felt it grab my member, which was rock hard.

"Wake up my stallion." The voice said as it started stroking. I had to admit, it was getting to me but the temptation of sleep was too powerful. That is until I smelled something that woke me up completely. My brain quickly registered what was going on: The familiar smell, the sensation of Twilight's hand on my member, her wetness on my thigh, and that we were both naked when we had went to bed with clothes on.

"Twilight?" I asked her, still slightly confused.

"The heat has begun Caine. Now fulfill your duty as my stallion." She said in a lust filled tone. I couldn't stop myself. The smell was too strong.

I flipped us over and rolled on top of Twilight. "Oooh Caine. Somepony's anxious." Twilight said as she smiled up at me.

I could feel myself slipping up and down her marehood with my mini-thrusts. She was wetter then the ocean right now. I looked to her for the go ahead and she nodded.

I lined myself up, and with one big thrust, pushed myself in all the way. "Oh my god Caine!" Twilight screeched. I thought I hurt her but she started panting and thrusting upward to try and get more of me inside her.

I pulled out almost to the tip and thrust back in again. Out and back in, out and back in. I kept a steady, hard pace. Eventually Twilight got the rhythm and thrusted upward to meet me. We continued on like this for several minutes before I felt myself getting close.

"Twilight" I warned her. She just nodded and locked her legs around me.

I started pumping harder and faster, almost losing my rhythm. I kept this up until the very last second, and with one last thrust, exploded inside of her. I felt her tighten around me, signalling her climax as well, milking me for everything I had. I collapsed next to her as I softened and panted.

"Caine, please, I need more. Rut me as hard as you can." She pleaded.

"I'm sorry Twilight. I'm too tired." I told her. I'm not used to doing something so physical right when I wake up.

"Then let me ride you." She begged.

I gave her a nod and she smiled. Heat was fucked up.

My member was completely soft by this point but that didn't stop Twilight. She went to work licking our juices off of it and in the process making me harder than steel.

"That's my stallion." She said with a smile. I smiled back with a little chuckle as she mounted me, sliding myself inside of her. About halfway in she let her weight fall and completely engulfed me. She started humping me with her hands on my shoulders. She had her eyes closed and looked like she was in heaven. I brought my hands up and started fondling her which earned me a loud moan.

"Harder" She whispered. I happily obliged. Her nipples were rock hard and I started palming them as well. This appeared to be too much for her since right afterward, she screamed my name and started grinding into me really hard. I let her ride it out and when she was done she continued with renewed vigor. I broke my hold on her breasts and put them on her shoulders. I started pulling them down and she unlocked her arms. I pulled her into a kiss while thrusting upwards to meet her. This sent us both over the edge without warning, and once again, climaxed together. Twilight let out a loud scream into my mouth as her body shook from the orgasm.

When we were done we passed out. We woke up a few hours later and Twilight was ready to go once more. We did it a few more times and then cleaned up.

This continued for the rest of the week. It seemed like we did it every half hour, which we probably did. We did it so much I was constantly finding myself empty by nightfall. By the end of the week I had slight bruising around my crotch and my member kind of hurt from all the action he had gotten. I was really glad when I woke up on Thursday all by myself, signaling the end of Twilight's heat.

**Thursday**

When I got out of bed and showered I went downstairs to find a scroll on the table addressed to me. It had a royal seal on it and had an important air about it for a simple scroll. I picked it up and started reading

_Caine,_

_Cadence, Luna, and I need to speak with you. This is urgent and you should come at the first chance you receive. You will learn all you need to know when you arrive._

_Celestia_

Well then, I guess I was going to Canterlot. There was no way in hell I was flying there though. After what happened last time I didn't want to risk it even though my endurance had drastically increased.

I decided to try a teleportation spell. I remembered to what Twilight had told me, envision where you want to go and in what direction it is in. Activate your horn and poof, there you are.

I pictured the Canterlot castle gates and activated my horn. Sure enough, when I opened my eyes I was there. I didn't even feel tired, my magical reserves must be enormous. Even Twilight herself would be fighting against unconsciousness from this distance.

The guards, noticing I had arrived, beckoned me over and escorted me through the palace to the throne room.

When we arrived Celestia, Luna and Cadence were all standing around a table that looked like something out of science fiction back on my earth.

"Caine, we need to talk. We feel it's finally best to explain to you what is actually going on, why you are here, and why you are an alicorn like us." Celestia started.

To be honest I stopped thinking about this within the first month of being here.

"Ok, what do you want to tell me?"

Luna answered me this time. "We think we should tell you why you are an alicorn. But first you must know a little history."

"Near the beginning of time. Five beings rose from the depths of the first suns. They were, as you would call them, gods. They ruled over the universe for several millennia but eventually became bored with the vast nothingness that surrounded them. So they started an experiment. They set into motion life, on this planet. They nurtured it and helped it grow. Each being had his own race that he tended to. These races were the ponies but alas two of them died out long before Celestia and I were created. What you see now is the remaining three. The two gods who lost their races became disinterested and began exploring other fields of the universe and eventually stumbled upon a universal rip which allowed them to see into the multiplicity of other universes. Meanwhile the other three gods knew they needed to unite the three remaining races into one and created alicorns, the strongest beings on this planet excluding discord, who was their previous attempt. The two gods started abducting one champion each and transporting them to another universe and combining their DNA to transform them into a hybrid of their original species and the strongest in that universes version of their planet and having them fight each other. This is what happened to you Caine. You are one of the champions, which is why you are an alicorn, why you are here, and why we called you here." She rattled off.

I had a hard time keeping up, this was a lot to wrap my head around. They let me think this through and I was about to flip my shit when something revealed itself.

I turned back to them to speak. "You said I was one champion, who is the other and where is he?" I asked. Celestia answered "We do not know, the beings only told us that he was the champion for the changlings. Which is also something we need to discuss. Cadence."

Cadence took her cue and started into her part of the subject. "The time is fast approaching for a war to take place." She saw my horrified yet confused expression and decided to clarify. "This is a rare event Caine. Never before have the gods chosen two champions then given them different species from which to draw their powers and abilities. This fight isn't just about who is the strongest, it's about which species is as well. When you fight you will be fighting for all ponykind. Yet as you fight Chrysalis' champion, our armies will clash with hers since she will no doubt try to make a move while we are focused on your fight. It is a fight to the death and the prize is a freedom of your choosing. You may be returned back to your original home, stay here, change back into a full human, and so on and so forth."

This was a lot to take in. I had a whole species riding on me to win, not to mention I had to win for Twilight. If I didn't, Equestria wouldn't stand a chance against both Chrysalis, who Twilight said was a formidable foe, and her Champion.

After a long time of going over and over my thoughts and options, I had but one question.

"When will I fight?"

"At the beginning of summer." Celestia answered.

"Enjoy your time with Twilight, Caine." Cadence said.

"I will, thank you all. I won't lose, I can't." I whispered the last part to myself as I turned around to leave.

"Caine, wait." Celestia called.

"Yes, Celestia?" I turned around, curious. I thought they had said all that they had needed.

"Do not tell Twilight, she is a strong girl but I don't think she could handle the prospect of having a chance at losing you. She may eventually find out but it must not be from you. Do you understand?" She asked.

"I understand Princess." I told her. I turned around and was led out of the castle by the guards who had escorted me in. I thanked them before I poofed back to ponyville to sort out some things in the case of my demise.

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><p><strong>AN: I told you at the beginning of the chapter shit was kicking off. Tell me if I went a little overboard with the world building but I just love it so much. I have always been fascinated by a show's or a game's world building. I like knowing more about it and I also like creating it apparently, it also doesn't help me keep it under control when I can do it so easily. I came up with this idea in about two minutes and spent ten minutes fine tuning it. As always tell me what you thought. See ya on the flip side.**


	26. Chapter 26: Out in the open

**Saturday (December 13th)**

Since learning of my impending fight with a being who is most likely just as powerful as I am, I had decided to brush up on my fighting skills. Back home I used to train almost every day, now I was starting to get rusty. This was proven when I was almost beaten by one of the greener guards in a sparring match Celestia had set up for me. I had been almost living at the castle since the first match, quickly learning pony techniques and incorporating human ones into them. What surprised me most was that ponies had no equivalent to tai kwan do. They only used their hands, horns, and wings if they had them. Apparently a ponies hooves were too fragile to be swung like a human foot. If a pony tried a roundhouse kick, they could very well destroy part of their hooves, which almost never grew back without heavy magic spells. This could be a great advantage to me since the other champion didn't know about my fighting background and Chrysalis would most likely tell them about this weakness in pony combat.

Twilight didn't seem too fazed about me spending all this time at the castle but I wasn't all that sure. At the moment I was getting ready to poof back home after gathering up my things for the day. I had spent the last few days here at the castle since I wanted to be at full power for my magical sparring lessons with Celestia's higher tier unicorn guards. Eventually I would be fighting Luna so I could practice using all the races abilities in one single battle.

I got ready to teleport back to the tree and with a spark was there instantly. I didn't bother calling out to her. I wanted to surprise her with some flowers I had picked up in Canterlot.

I tried out a new trick Celestia had taught me, I reached out with my horn to feel for Twilight's magical energy and found it upstairs in the bedroom. I headed up there to greet her.

When I walked in the door, however, I saw tears adorning her face.

"Twilight?" I asked.

She looked up at me with sad eyes and looked back down. I rushed over to her "Twilight, what's wrong?".

When I got to her I kneeled so she had to look at me when she had her head down. "Twilight speak to me. I want to know what's wrong.".

"I know." She whispered. I couldn't quite hear her.

"What?" I asked.

"I know!" She screamed in my face, startling me. I fell backwards and landed on the floor. She stood up in anger.

"Know what?" I asked her. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"About you being a champion! Shining told me!" She screamed.

I got up "Twilight I am sorry. But why are you mad?" I tried pulling her into a hug but she pushed me away. "Don't touch me! I'm mad because _you_ didn't tell me. You kept me in the dark for almost two months about you having a chance to die, Caine. Die! Do you know how that makes me feel? I could have lost you and not have even known why until it was too late!" She was actively crying now.

"Celestia asked me not to-" I tried to answer but was interrupted. "And that makes it okay?! Caine, we are a couple, I love you; but with you staying at the castle, here I was thinking I was just a fling. We haven't spent one night together in three weeks, three weeks! Do you even still love me anymore, did you love me at all?" She asked with pleading eyes.

I couldn't believe she just asked me that. Of course I loved here, most of the reason I was doing all this was because of that love.

I took a moment to calm myself before answering. "I love you Twilight, with everything I have. The whole reason I am even doing all of this, is because I do." With that I walked out of the room. At some point the flowers had dropped out of my hand and were laying on the floor. I just wanted to be alone at the moment and I was pretty sure she did too. I walked down the stairs and out the door. I started up my horn and teleported into my room at the palace. I tried falling asleep but couldn't. I decided to just wait until morning where I could take out my anger on some training dummies.

**Friday**

I hadn't seen or heard from Twilight since our fight. Multiple times I had tried going back to ponyville but something was stopping my teleportations to the library. I had tried teleporting to other parts of town, and succeeded, but could never get into the library. I had also tried getting a message to Twilight through Celestia but never got an answer back.

It was tearing me up inside. I didn't know how much longer I could work while knowing Twilight hated me and wanted nothing to do to me.

The past week had seen me training constantly and shattering the guards resolve of winning. Very few of them would even get near the ring when I was in it. At one point I became so frustrated with not having an able-bodied sparring partner, I ordered a dozen guards into the ring at once to take me on. I won without breaking a sweat. Something was starting to happen when I fought, it was like I could almost see what my opponents next three moves were. I would be starting my training with Luna in a few days. Here advice to me was to clear my mind of all worries while fighting her since even the slightest hesitation would spell my defeat. She wasn't being cocky, she was legitimately warning me to be careful. Out of the two sisters, Celestia was the most powerful, but Luna could easily defeat her in a real fight.

I was on my way back to my bedroom to try a last-ditch attempt to get into the library. When I arrived I threw my stuff on the bed and lit up my horn.

I pictured the first floor and started pouring the usual amount of magic into the spell. When that didn't work, I took it up a notch. I kept doing this till I started to feel dizzy, but I continued on, pouring more and more magic into the spell. Eventually I could feel what ever was stopping me start to give way but I was starting to lose consciousness. With one final burst, I felt myself teleport right into the room.

I opened my eyes to look straight into Twilight's.

"Twilight I'm-" Was all I was able to say as my knees buckled and I staved off unconsciousness.

"Oh Celestia! Caine, what happened?" I heard Twilight say as she kneeled down to flip me onto my back, almost breaking my wing connectors. I yelled out in pain but it quickly subsided.

"Twilight, I wanted to say... to say... what was I going to say?" I questioned myself. My mind was in shambles and I could barely think.

"Twilight...someth-something wrong." I tried to tell her.

I saw her horn and hands light up as they passed over my body.

"Dear Celestia, Caine! How did you manage to expend this much magic? Why did you expend that much magic? You almost killed yourself!" She looked almost indifferent which hurt me.

I just looked at her for I-don't-even-know how long, as my mind slipped between an amnesiac type state and the jumbled mess I called my mind at the moment. After what felt like ages, my mind started to piece itself together and I could finally start thinking somewhat coherently.

"I... I needed to see you. I couldn't take you hating me." I strained to get out. Talking was a chore for my broken mind.

"Something stopped me from coming sooner. I used as much magic as needed to come." I finally told her.

"I don't hate you Caine. I thought you hated me for questioning your love. After you left, I tried so hard to contact you but no matter what, something stopped me." She explained.

She got up and tried to pick me up with her arms.

"Magic?" I asked her.

"Too dangerous." She decided to sit down above me and put my head in her lap. She started stroking my cheek to try to calm me. I noticed my body was almost vibrating when she did this but it soon seemed to calm down.

"If I tried to use magic on you, your body might start draining me for all it's worth to replace what it lost."

"Oh." Was all I said as I started to drift into unconsciousness.

"Twilight I'm-" I was interrupted by Twilight who could see that I was fighting it.

"Shoosh Caine. Let it come over you. I'll be here when you wake up." She said softly in my ear, still stroking my cheek.

With that I let it come over my and passed out on the spot.

**Saturday**

When I woke up, I shot straight into a sitting position, promptly knocking Twilight off the bed since she was laying partially on top of me.

"Jeez Caine. I get that your magic reserves are full enough for you to move but you didn't need to fling me off the bed." She got up rubbing her head.

"Sorry Twilight. What happened after I passed out?" I asked her. I was wondering how she managed to drag my 370 pounds up the stairs with her scrawny frame.

"Once you fell asleep, I sent a message to Applejack to come help me move you upstairs to get some sleep. After that you just laid in bed. I came up last night and here we are."

"You're not still angry at me are you?" I asked her. I didn't know what I would do if her response was yes.

"A little bit but seeing that you almost killed yourself just to talk to me, not nearly as much." With that she climbed back into the bed and snuggled up against me. A grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank Celestia. I was going crazy knowing you were angry at me, and not being able to get to you didn't help either. I am also pretty sure Celestia's guards will be happy that we are over this fight." This earned me a giggle.

"So what is the plan?" She asked me, sounding serious.

"What do you mean?" I looked at her with a confused expression.

"The plan of how you are going to beat Chrysalis' champion." She explained.

"Okay one, your brother is dead. Two, there is no plan." Twilight looked horrified but I didn't know whether from me not having any plan or having her brother on my shit list.

"We don't know enough about him to formulate any type of plan. All we know is that he will be drawing his powers from the changling species and we can only do so much with that. We sure as hell can't construct a plan without it having a million contingencies." I explained to her.

"I guess you're right." After that, the conversation died and we just held each other till we really had to move. I had to get back to the palace and Twilight was in the middle of a project when I had popped in.

"I will be back sometime next week, Twilight." I told her as I was putting on my clothes. When I turned around I felt her rush into me.

"I really wish you weren't the champion. I love you." She said.

"I love you too, Twilight." We untangled ourselves and went our separate ways. Her back to her project, and me back to the castle for more training.

**Wednesday**

Today was the day I would finally go against Luna, and the day where I would finally be able to give it my all.

At the moment I was getting ready for the match. For this to be a safe match, we had to wear rings around our horns that were fine tuned to our opponents and would only let out enough magic in our spells that the other could handle, we didn't want to kill each other now did we?

We needed to wear the combat clothes that I was going to be using to fight the other champion. They were enchanted by Celestia herself to negate a lot of physical damage and a little magical damage. The best thing about them was that they looked like Arabian robes, lightweight and decent looking. They were also fitted to me so they wouldn't get in the way of the fight. They had the same grayish black color the top of my wings had.

I also had a 'safe' version of the maul I was planning on using in the real fight. The only difference between this one and the real one was that this one wouldn't be able to kill anypony. I could swing it as hard as I could but it would only give the impression of pain. All the pony had to do was utter a command word and the spell would be broken and they would feel fine.

After I was done suiting up I waited for a guard to come get me for the fight. Eventually one arrived and took me out to the arena where we were then transported to a field outside the city. There was no way Celestia was letting Luna and I fight anywhere near the city, and I can't blame her. I caused enough damage in simple sparring fights against guards. There is no telling what we will do going balls to the wall.

Luna and I turned towards each other, about fifteen feet apart.

"Are you ready, Caine? You must give it your all to beat me." She started.

"I know, don't hold out because you are scared of hurting me. We both know the safety word." I reassured her.

"Alright then. I will honor your wish." With that we both looked to the guard who would be 'reffing' this fight.

He brought his hand up high, and in one quick motion, brought it down and yelled go.

Immediately I felt a surge come from Luna's direction, I moved just in time to avoid getting a shot straight to my chest but still took it in the shoulder.

I recovered quickly and used the force from her punch to turn myself around with a roundhouse kick to her side. She too tried moving out of the way but I still caught her slightly, sending her whirling.

I brought my foot down, flapped my wings as hard as I could, and pushed off into Luna's general direction. I thought I would be too fast for her to dodge but she steadied herself far quicker then I would have expected and leaped out of the way sending a magical bolt into my side. It hurt like a son of a bitch and knocked the wind out of me. I was just barely able to tuck into a roll and land on my feet before I felt Luna coming at me again.

I put my arms up in a pathetic attempt to block, which just served to almost cripple my arms and for me to basically elbow myself in the face while being launched into a nearby tree.

When I regained my footing I instinctually dodged left and just missed being bashed into the tree even more. Unfortunately for Luna, she managed to impale the tree with her arm and was stuck for a second, just long enough. I tucked into a roll again, turned myself around and launched myself again into where Luna was. I was much faster than before and actually got in a decent punch to her kidney, slightly crippling her.

I didn't waste any time and encased my hands in a magical casing equivalent to brass knuckles. I started pummeling away at the barrier Luna had messily set up and quickly broke through it. Dealing blow after blow to her chest and sides. I felt like I was king of the world, that is until Luna teleported away and detonated a magical grenade at the same time.

I was sent quite a ways away from the blast site and my stomach was on fire. I looked down to see a magical shard in it. I quickly pulled it out and stood up. I couldn't see Luna and reached out my magical tendrils. I found her but I couldn't pinpoint her, it was like she was teleporting at an almost exponential rate. I realized too late that, that was what she was doing exactly. She appeared before me a few feet in the air and brought her interlocked hands down onto my head, sending me straight down.

I couldn't recover fast enough and felt her fists fly into me, fast and sharp. I needed to do something fast or I would be beaten. I jerked my body upwards as if to kick her, a move she has seen a million times from me, and she landed on the ground to avoid it. Too bad for her I hadn't gone through with it and as soon as she landed I scissored my legs sending her sprawling.

I rolled to me feet and charged up a magical cannon, and before she could get to her feet, let it go. It made a crater in the ground about a dozen feet wide and sent Luna into the air. I quickly braced myself and shot into the air as fast as I could and intercepted her in midair. I quickly manipulated our bodies so my elbow was into the lower left of her back and she would hit the ground first.

I flapped my wings downwards and we hit the ground, causing a crater as big as a soccer field to appear.

She was down for the count and I got up off of her. When I stood up I was met with a blast of magic to my face and was sent backwards out of the crater. I landed on my back and Luna was on me in a flash. She sent punch after punch after punch to my face and chest. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body but I couldn't move. Luna was somehow sitting on me in such a way that I couldn't move my arms and my feet couldn't get a grip on anything.

After a few seconds of this she stopped and charged up another magical blast. I took my chance and fired off my own personal combat spell, a flashbang.

She screamed and I threw her off. I quickly got to my feet and ran full force at her. I brought my fist into striking position and when I reached her pumped a magical detonation off of my elbow that, along with my own force, sent my fist into Luna's stomach like an industrial piston. She flew farther than I could ever throw her regularly. The bad thing was, was that my hand felt broken after that. I set up a healing spell but that could only do so much since I wasn't skilled at all at healing magic.

As I had set up the spell, Luna had disappeared but this time I couldn't find her. I widened my search and felt a ginormous amount of magical energy about a mile north. I quickly set off for it but as I got nearer, it grew and eventually disappeared.

I reached out my tendrils again to find it was right above me and with terror, looked up to see Luna right above me with a marble sized ball of energy.

Before I could react, she let it off and I was engulfed in the strongest magic I had ever experienced. It felt like Luna was punching me a million times a second, everywhere. I endured it and when it eventually ended, I saw Luna hovering above me with a shocked expression on her face. She took one second to admire her handy work before closing her wings and dropping down with a punch to my face from twenty feet above me, knocking me out.

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><p><strong>AN: I feel like a bad writer when I create a problem, just to solve it within a few paragraphs. Eh, either way I did it and I don't feel like going back and changing it. I figured out the reason my chapters are so short: I take every chance I get to end the chapter, almost like a tv episode. Anyways, I got in the fight with Luna and now Twilight knows about Caine being a champion. See ya on the flip side.**


	27. Chapter 27: Beginning of the End

**Monday (sometime in May)**

I leaped back as Luna's magical bolt struck the ground. I landed on my feet and shot into the air, readying my maul.

I swung my whole body sideways pushing the maul into Luna's side and sending her crashing to the ground.

"Hey Luna, getting a little slow I see." I yelled at her.

In response she let off a magical cannon burst which I easily dodged. She hadn't been able to hit me with a magical attack since February. My magical senses were too good at this point.

"I see your magical radar skills are impeccable as ever." She said as I swung my maul around into a defending position to block the strike from her halberd from behind.

"You see right princess." I swung my maul at her head and landed a glancing blow, dazing her.

"Just not for much longer." I flew in fast, sheathed my maul, and dealt sickening blows to her head and legs, a ponies weakest parts. After a few seconds I grabbed her arms and sent an electric current through her body, stunning her. Not much of a problem for a pony to handle but for a changling and a human, almost fatal.

I was training to fight a half human, half changling hybrid after all; and my training with Luna had brought my combat proficiency to heights I could never even dream of back on earth. Luna was nowhere near my equal in magic, flight, or strength at this point. She could only match me in weapon vs. weapon, and even then, only a fifty-fifty shot. This is quite an accomplishment since the first time we had fought, she was holding back a lot of her abilities. The move she had used to finish it was only classified as second tier out of ten. Now I was beyond the top-tier. We all thought I was ready, the training now was just to keep me on my toes.

She snapped open her wings at the last second and shot upwards, getting her halberd ready.

I dropped down to meet her after creating some magical gauntlets. When we met she swung in an awkward fashion and caught my shoulder, but she couldn't complete the turn before I seized it in my hands and ripped it out of hers. I threw it off into the distance and let off one of my top tier cannons to finish this fight.

Luna fell to the ground, unconscious, and made a small crater from the force of the blast. My magic gauntlets dissipated without my say-so, which is how I knew the match was won.

I light up my magic and teleported Luna and I to the palace's hospital wing where Celestia, Twilight, and Rarity were waiting.

"I see you have gone far and above my sister, Caine." Celestia pointed out, noticing her unconscious sister in my magic, being set down on a cot.

"Pretty much. I guess that makes me the most combat proficient pony in all of equestria?" I asked her. If there was somepony else above Luna, I had to start training with them, summer would start next month.

"As far as I, or my sister know of." She responded. I was slightly relieved and scared at the same time. Relieved because I had everything ponykind had to offer, and scared because if I couldn't defeat the changling champion, nopony could.

"I'm so proud of you." Twilight said.

"As am I, Caine. We have full confidence in your ability to defeat Chrysalis' champion." Rarity assured me.

"I'm still worried about everypony else. Since I am now the best you all have to offer, if I can't win then none of you can. Even the elements are useless against him." I stated my worries.

"Caine, I would like to speak with you in private for a few moments." Celestia interrupted before Twilight or Rarity could say anything.

"Ok." I followed her out into the hallway where she put up a bubble around us to keep eavesdroppers out.

"You may know all the combat spells of unicorns but there is one spell that only an alicorn can perform, and I would like you to learn it. It could mean the destruction or the salvation of ponykind." She started.

"What is it?" I asked eagerly. I needed every trick I could keep up my sleeves.

"It must only be used as a last resort since if you do it, and the other champion isn't dead, you will not be able to win." She said.

I nodded my understanding. "You remember how you detonate magical 'grenades', as you call them?" I nodded once more.

"Well think of that, only with each shred of magical energy in your body. From all three races." She let me mull that around in my head for a while.

The magical energy contained within me far outclassed any living Unicorn, Pegasus, or Earth pony. I had my own level, even compared to Celestia and Luna. A blast of that magnitude would kill just about everything in a three-mile radius. Anything caught at the center of that blast would be instantly vaporized into sub-atomic particles, it was ridiculous. It was then that I remembered what happened to me when I was just drained of my Unicorn magic and how that had affected me; if I didn't win with this, I really wouldn't be able to win at all if I hadn't already lost.

"That...is a last resort." I replied to her stupidly.

"Indeed. Now let us get back to Twilight and Rarity before Twilight loses her hair." She said with a motherly snicker.

"Yeah, that would be a good idea. I don't feel like having a bald marefriend." I agreed with her. She let down the spell and we walked back inside.

"What were you two talking about?" Surprisingly it was Rarity who asked this instead of Twilight.

"It is not important right now." Celestia told them. Damn, being a ruler for a thousand years gives you one hell of a poker face.

"Right, well since this match is over for the time being, why don't you three head back to ponyville and get some sleep. The battle will be in two weeks sadly. You must be prepared by then, Caine." Celestia said.

"I will be." I assured her with force. And I believed it too, if I wasn't ready then no pony was going to be.

We locked hands and used our magic to transport ourselves back home. Rarity to her boutique and Twilight and I to the library.

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><p><strong>AN: Three miles is about 4.8 kilometers for those of you who want to know but are too lazy to use the internet. I am planning on finishing this story by the end of the month so get your peace with it because it won't continue in its current form after the last chapter. It will continue (kind of. Like I said, spiritual successor). I am almost 100% sure of how I want the next 2 or 3 chapters to go. See ya on the flip side.**


	28. Chapter 28: Interlude

**May 31st**

"Tomorrow is the day" I sighed to myself. I was laying in bed waiting for Twilight so we could fall asleep. I had found it hard to doze off without her around and tomorrow being the day where I would make or break an entire society was starting to get to me.

The past two weeks weren't filled with anything new except for my practicing of the technique Celestia told me about. I got the jist I just couldn't practice it completely.

"Hello Caine." I heard Twilight say from the doorway in a lust filled voice.

I looked over to see Twilight wearing nothing but some panties and a bra. I sat up to question her. "Twilight what are you doing?"

She walked over and got on top of me. "I'm trying to make, what could possibly be, our last night together the best one of our lives." She responded.

I smiled up at her. "Thank you." I pulled her down and we started kissing passionately.

**Rarity's POV**

"Tomorrow is the day." I sighed to myself. My whole life could end tomorrow and there was nothing I could do to stop it. One of my closest friends might be killed and one of my other best friends would surely die from a broken heart. I would be surprised if she didn't, she loved him with every ounce of her being.

"Oh Caine. You have to win tomorrow. Not just for ponykind but for Twilight as well."

**Derpy's POV**

Tomorrow is the day. The rumor of the war had blown up into a full-out inevitability. Everypony knew about it and was silently panicking. We all knew who to put our trust in. Not our princesses but our champion. He would be fighting tomorrow against the changlings' champion and there was not a single thing I could do. I couldn't fight anypony and I couldn't provide much help in any other areas. My ex-best friend might die tomorrow and I could do nothing. I felt so weak and helpless.

**Celestia's POV**

'Tomorrow is the day' I thought to myself. I didn't know if Caine could win against Chrysalis' champion. Those devil's in gods clothing put one of the only humans Caine might not be able to kill as his enemy. He might not fight, and if he doesn't fight, my ponies won't live.

**Sam's POV**

Tomorrow is the day. And tomorrow will be a good day to kill.


	29. Chapter 29: All Good Things

**June 1st**

I woke up early the next day. Twilight was asleep next to me and there was a scroll on the night stand from Celestia. I opened it and read it over. I was to report to the castle as soon as possible to get ready for the fight.

I didn't want to wake Twilight, I couldn't take saying goodbye. "I love you Twilight." I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. I lit up my horn and teleported to my room in the castle to find my robes and maul ready for me.

I donned them and walked the halls to the throne room. I eventually made it and upon entering, was greeted by a line of guards on either side of the rug leading to the thrones that were occupied by the Sun and Moon princesses. All were dressed for battle.

I walked along the carpet receiving stares of varying sorts. Most of them were of pity or hope and a few with anger. When I reached the thrones I kneeled down and hung my head.

"Rise champion. The time for you to fulfill your duty is approaching." Celestia spoke in a tone you would expect a queen of a thousand years to have, strong and forceful.

I did as she said and was met with the blank faces of Celestia and Luna.

"We will be moving out as soon as possible. Are you ready to fight?" She asked in the same time.

"I am princess Celestia." I responded with determination. I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

"Very good. Captain." She said while still looking at me.

A guard with a different set of armor came up and stood next to me. He was a pretty big stallion, and this coming from me.

"Yes, your highness?" He asked.

"Mobilize your troops and bring them into a defensive position around the city. Chrysalis wouldn't dare attack anywhere but here. Send one of your scouts along with Caine to the battlefield. Finally, bring the elements bearers to the castle. Chrysalis may only outright attack Canterlot but there is no telling what she will do to the elements if they are not protected." Celestia rattled off commands like she had been doing something like this her entire life. It made me wonder how many wars she had actually experienced.

"Yes, your highness. Blue streak!" He turned around and called out the name. A pegasus guard on the smaller side of the spectrum stepped forward with a 'yes sir'.

"You will escort the champion to the battlefield." The Captain told him.

"Yes sir." He responded. Blue streak motioned for me to follow him and we exited the room.

We walked down the hallway in silence. We eventually made it out of the castle and took flight. We flew about ten miles east of the castle. The battleground looked wierd, almost familiar. I realized suddenly that it looked very familiar. It was a park from earth, with benches, trees, and concrete pathways. It looked so out of place in Equestria, especially since they were still using masonry to build their complex structures instead of steel.

We landed down in the middle of the park and Blue streak left.

I sat down on one of the benches and waited for what felt like hours.

"Hello Caine." That voice. I know that voice, and I hate it. I stood up and turned around.

"Hi Sam. How's the family business been?" I asked my brother. He was about a head shorter than I was and his wings were a dark green with some black on the bone structure. Like mine they appeared bat like in structure but instead of feathers, they looked like insect wings. He looked bulked up as well. He was much bigger then the average man, but then again, compared to the average man I, myself, was ginormous. His horn was jagged and black like someone had shot large-caliber bullets through it on the ends. His eyes had also changed, instead of blue they were now a deep turquoise. He had some type of kilt on and a pike strapped to his back. (A/N: Sorry about this but some people don't know and it's pointless for me to put it at the end or beginning of the chapter. A pike is a spear with a metal shaft surrounding the wooden one to protect it and give it more reach if need be. And if you haven't figured it out yet a maul is a warhammer)

"I don't know. I haven't been home in almost a year!" He yelled at me, furious.

"Hey now, I haven't done anything. I was brought here against my will just like you were!" I yelled back.

"If I can kill you, I can go back home and get away from those disgusting creatures." He forewent the rest of the blame game to get straight to the fight.

"Good luck." I told him. We settled into combat positions but before we could start, he seemed to notice something.

"Wait a minute." He stood up straight. "I was stuck with those insects, what are you based off of?" Oh shit.

"What do you mean? Didn't they tell you?" I asked him, trying to get out of answering the question.

"No, they didn't. They just told me how to fight em. Which given how much that is based upon how they look, it is pretty remarkable that I wasn't able to figure it out. All I know is that they have hooves and that they are extremely weak." He said in his ' I'm a genius and you're not, dumbass' voice which pissed the hell out of me.

"I was stuck with anthropomorphic, horny, ponies with a male to female ratio of five to one favoring the females." That got him. I knew it would, my brother was a pervert and in my position, he would have dozens of illegitimate children at this point.

His face devolved into one of pure hatred and anger. "I'll kill you." He angrily whispered before he shot forward with his claws out. He moved like lightning and I had just enough time to side step him so he didn't gut me right then and there.

He got a cut on my shirt but it was repelled. He turned around quickly and went for a roundhouse kick to the head. I caught it in my hands and twisted, bringing his body along, and spun in circles, eventually letting go and sending him into a tree.

He went right through it and teleported. I read his signature above me and rolled out of the way of his pike, which impaled itself into the concrete below us halfway up the metal shaft.

I turned and fired a magical blast up at him, catching his arm but only barely. When I refocused on him I realized his wings looked almost translucent until I realized they were flapping at much faster rate than any pegasus wings I had ever seen. They were flapping so fast I could hear a slight buzzing if I listened hard enough.

He flew up high and his pike flew up after him into the clouds. If it was an air-born battle he wanted then that was what he was going to get.

I spread my wings and pushed off from the ground and flew up fast into the clouds. I stopped somewhere in the middle and sent out my tendrils. I found Sam right above me with a humongous source of magical energy. I closed one wing and flapped with the other so I dropped like a stone at an angle to the ground. I felt the burst go past me but it caught my arm. Searing pain shot up it and I looked down to see it almost cooking.

I was pissed now. I teleported to above the clouds and readied a top tier grenade. I felt it in my hand, it almost hurt to touch. It was one of my more powerful moves. It would clear the cloud covering and hopefully catch Sam in the blast. I dropped it and let it fall for a second then detonated it. The clouds were blown away and I felt Sam's magical energy falling extremely fast towards the ground. The clouds cleared just in time for me to see him smash into the ground and make a crater.

I flew down at him in a power dive. Before I got to him however, I was met with a hard punch to my stomach with the force of my fall and the force of the person hitting me going straight into my stomach. Whoever had hit me also stopped my fall. I looked over to see a bruised Sam with a triumphant grin on his face. I looked down at the crater for just a split second and saw the Sam in it, dissolving.

He started laughing but I wasn't done yet, not nearly done. I righted myself on his arm, grabbed his neck and, with all my force, dealt a sickening blow to his mouth. I felt the bone crunch under my hand and Sam screamed. Blood was pouring from his destroyed mouth and if it was possible, he was even angrier.

We fell away from each other and landed on the ground. I readied my maul and Sam, his pike. We rushed each other. He went for a stab but I twisted in a 360 and brought my hammer upside his head, sending him flying off deeper into the park. I rushed after him and right into a whack to the face from the shaft of his pike, putting me on my back. He stood above me and started stabbing the ground, I turned and each time he missed me. Eventually, though, he got me in my left shoulder, sending it deep into it and through muscle and bone. I almost passed out from the pain. I knew if I didn't win this fight soon I might lose the arm, and I really didn't want that.

I grabbed his pike while it was still in my shoulder and scissored with my legs, sending him crashing to the ground. I ripped the pike out of my shoulder and had just enough time to obliterate it before I felt Sam's fist connect with my knee, almost breaking it. I was forced to my knees and rewarded with a kick to the face sending me into a tree.

I conjured a magical grenade and cooked it. When Sam went in to take a shot, I dodged out of the way and glued it to his back. I leaped away as it exploded. When the smoke cleared I could see Sam on the ground and smoking. His left arm appeared to be gone along with part of his left wing.

I readied my maul and brought it down. What I hadn't noticed was that Sam had used the same trick twice. He left a copy in his wake as he teleported. I brought my maul down on his head but it just dissipated.

I turned around to feel a stab through my abdomen. I looked down to see a magical aura coming from a makeshift combat knife, sticking out of my stomach.

I saw Sam a few feet away with his right arm holding the shoulder of his missing left arm and his horn alight with the same magical aura surrounding the blade. I felt it twist and slash deep across my gut, sideways towards my kidneys and out. I saw blood fly and my vision was starting to get blurry. I stood up straight and looked at Sam, and he looked at me. We had one thought in our minds 'Kill my brother'. We charged.

**Rarity's POV**

We were at the castle with our elements and the princesses. Twilight was a wreck and barely functional. I wasn't much better and the girls were trying to console us. It had been an hour since the scout had taken Caine to fight the other champion. We could hear them clashing a few miles away. Every time one of them hit the other, it shook the ground. It was like a battle of the gods, which made me fear what would happen if the gods actually fought each other here.

Chrysalis hadn't shown her face yet but changling scouts had been seen near the base of the mountain.

While we were waiting Celestia tried to calm everypony down.

"It will be okay, Caine will triumph and when that happens, Chrysalis will retreat. We have nothing to fear." Except it wasn't working. Twilight cried harder and I almost started crying myself. The guards looked uneasy as well. Suddenly, a shockwave much more powerful than the ones before hand, erupted. Celestia brought up a seeing eye portal and we saw two beams of energy hitting each other in a wierd looking forest. Caine was ahold of white energy and looked to be near death while another human with changling parts, had a greenish energy and only one arm.

When the energy stopped, the portal blew up on us and we were left in the dark once again.

**Caine's POV**

Nothing we were doing was working. We were at a stalemate at this point. Sam had destroyed my maul and I had conjured my gauntlets. We weren't getting anywhere though. Each of his stabs, I side stepped. Each of my punches, he dodged. We couldn't hit each other with magic either since we were equally matched. In every regard we were matched.

I needed to end this. Neither one of us could go on for much longer. We had been fighting for what felt like hours. Each of us was drained of our reserves. I refused to let this end in a draw. I needed a plan. I needed to get close to him. Close enough to use the fail safe. It was my only shot. We would be fighting until one of us either got lucky or dropped dead from blood loss and with things going the way they were going, Sam was probably going to outlast me, he hadn't lost nearly as much blood as I had.

I needed a plan. One eventually sprang to mind but if done incorrectly, it would kill me. Especially if I didn't move fast enough.

With one final breath to calm myself, I started up the detonation process. I started glowing a myriad of colors from the different magical energies within me. I rushed forward straight into Sam's guard. And right onto his knife. I wrapped my arms around him in a vice grip. He couldn't get out but he could still do damage with his impaled knife.

I got ready to blow. I took down all the failsafes I had set up to keep myself from accidentally detonating while practicing. With one final thought of everypony I loved, I unleashed it.

We were enveloped in a white energy. It hurt me to be in it but I could feel Sam practically disintegrating under my grip. I had won, but at what cost.

When it was over, I was lying on my stomach with the knife still embedded in my chest. It was slowly being pushed towards my heart by my own body weight. I couldn't move, I couldn't think, I couldn't even blink. I was nothing anymore. All that energy had kept my alive and without any left, I might as well be dead. I felt the knife finally slip into my heart and I felt myself let go and into darkness.

**Celestia's POV**

"CAINE!" Twilight screeched at the top of her lungs, raw and full of emotion. We had just been hit by the shockwave of Caine's discharge and had seen the light of it a few seconds ago. There had been two crystals given to both Chrysalis and I to signal if our Champion and our opponents Champion were alive. Sam's had gone out but then Caine's had a few moments later.

Reports were already coming in of Chrysalis' troops retreating back to their hive. Eventually I told them not to bother me anymore, knowing that Equestria was safe once more.

Twilight slumped to the ground in a wreck. She wasn't crying anymore and her eyes were lifeless. I walked over to comfort her but had no idea what to say.

**Caine's POV (The gods realm)**

"Where am I?" I asked myself, although I couldn't hear my voice. I couldn't see anything, hear anything, or feel anything. I couldn't even taste the saliva on my tongue or smell my own blood. All of my senses were completely useless to me.

"You are in our realm, Hero." Said a voice that was neither male nor female, it sounded like it was inside my head. Like I had thought it, only in a voice different from mine.

"Where is your realm?" I said, though, I didn't feel like I did since I couldn't monitor anything.

"Beyond the living plane." Said a voice that was slightly different.

"Because that helps so much." I said with annoyance hopefully evident in whatever they were hearing.

"Moving on. You have won the battle but sadly have died right after. We are still obligated to grant you one freedom but you must know that we can not reverse something that was meant to be permanent unless we ourselves directly caused it to happen and sadly, we indirectly caused your death thus we can not bring you back to life. What is it you wish?" The first voice asked. I was angry but I felt it hard to keep that emotion. Everything I felt kept slipping away. I couldn't feel happy about winning, sad about never seeing Twilight again, or angry that they had killed me with their stupid ass game.

After getting over my inability to feel. I started thinking about what I wanted. I eventually thought of something that might work.

"Would it be possible for you to grant the ability of my counsel to my descendants and loved ones in times of great need?" I hoped I worded it right. If they screwed me I didn't know what I would do but thankfully, I had worded it in such a way that they would have to go to great lengths to misinterpret it.

They were both silent for a long time. Eventually they spoke in unison "Granted!".

Immediately I was sucked away and found myself in the throne room of Canterlot castle. I could see everypony around Twilight but something about her looked off. While I could see everypony, I could also see an aura coming from them, but Twilight, she had her own obviously purple one and an orange one just below the center of her body.

"Twilight?" I asked cautiously.

I saw her look up but put her head back in her hands a second later.

"Twilight, it's me, Caine." I said.

She looked up once more and this time around the room. Eventually her eyes settled on me and she looked like she was going to die.

She stood up and rushed over to me but went through me. The other girls stared on in confusion. After Twilight got over not being able to hold me she turned to me.

"Is it really you?" She asked.

"It is. The freedom I wished for was to be able to provide consul for my loved ones and descendents in times of great need. Apparently this applies."

She broke down after that. I waited until she was okay to speak again.

That second aura was really getting to me and I had to ask. "Twilight, why do you have a second aura?" She looked confused by my statement.

"I don't have a second aura." I saw Celestia's eyes go wide after Twilight said this.

"Celestia knows something about this." I told her.

She turned towards Celestia and walked up to her. "Celestia, do I have a second aura?" Twilight asked, bordering on angry.

"It would appear so my pupil." She answered sheepishly. No idea why.

Twilight seemed to stiffen at the response. She turned back towards me with tears in her eyes.

"Twilight what's wrong?" I asked, afraid for her.

She walked up to me and whispered into my ear. "A baby." I jerked away at this. Those weren't tears of sadness, they were tears of joy.

"That's amazing!" I exclaimed. I wasn't going to show Twilight my real feelings about not being able to see my child grow up. I needed to be happy for her.

I went to hug her but apparently my time was up. I started dissolving and before I could reach her, I was teleported away into another room with colt that looked a lot like Twilight's brother. He turned to me and looked shocked.

"Dad?"

**Twilight's POV**

I couldn't believe it. I was pregnant. With Caine's child, the stallion I loved with all my heart. My life wasn't over like I had thought. It was just beginning.

**A/N: And that wraps things up! I feel like I did alright with this. This is the second version of this chapter. I didn't feel like the first one was good enough. I liked writing this story and I am glad so many people liked reading. I will probably get back to my other story sometime next month, thinking about taking a break. Maybe. I can be fickle. Well anyways, I would love to hear what everyone thought of this chapter. Everyone. I probably won't change it if it's bad because I liked the way I ended it but I would really like some feed back. If you would also take the time, give me a review of the whole story. That is what I usually do and I usually get thank yous from the authors who I give them to. Reviews of the whole story are good for us. Any questions I will be happy to answer, now that this story is over. See ya on the flip side.**

**Each ending is just another beginning in disguise. When one story ends, another rises up from the ashes. This is the cycle.**


	30. Chapter 30: Epilogue

**A/N: Okay everybody. I realized that I completely forgot to tie up loose ends in the final chapter. So sit tight, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Also, this was my original plan on how to explain all the weird occurences that happened to Caine over the course of 'A New Start'.**

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><p><strong>Rarity's POV<strong>

It had been about nine months since the battle of champion's, as it had come to be called. Twilight was showing greatly and would be giving birth sometime in the next two months. Shining had moved in to help her with the whole ordeal since she didn't have Caine. We all had learned that Twilight was going to have a colt, which we all would have to be careful about since it was obvious he wasn't going to have a sister. Twilight hadn't even begun to nurture the idea of dating ever again, and with a colt, she wouldn't have to. As long as she was around him, she could keep her heat to controllable levels.

We had all learned that all the weird things that happened: My getting mugged, Derpy's near rape, the mysterious mare; were all set ups by the two gods to get Caine into fighting condition and make him the good champion. We were also told that Caine's brother, Sam, had also gone through trials but his were more tailored to his type of lifestyle. Essentially, while Caine was made good, Sam was made evil. It was sickening but there was nothing we could do about it now.

Currently I was on my way to Twilight's to check up on her. The girls and I had all taken days throughout the week to check up Twilight and Shining armor.

I made my way through Ponyville, saying hi to my other friends and acquaintances along the way, and eventually arrived to hear screaming coming from inside.

I rushed in to find Twilight on the ground and Shining no where in sight. Twilight saw me before I could voice my question.

"Rarity! It hurts... It hurts OWWW! So much! I think I'm in labor! You have to get me to the hospital, now!" She screamed at me.

I immediately went to work and picked her up as best I could but it was no use, she was too heavy. If I used magic I could harm the baby and I wasn't nearly strong enough to get her to the hospital by myself. I sent out a message to the rest of the girls and Twilight's brother, hoping that one of them would get here soon to help me carry her.

While we waited I held Twilight's head and upper back up and held onto her hand, which was crushing mine. Eventually Rainbow Dash arrived and helped me pick her up.

We quickly got her out the door and met up with Pinkie pie who also helped carry her.

We eventually made it to the hospital but the contractions were getting closer together. She was set into a wheelchair and hauled off to the pregnancy ward. A few minutes later Shining Armor burst through the doors, followed by Fluttershy and Applejack.

"Where is she?" He asked urgently. I pointed to the pregnancy ward and he dashed off. The other girls tried to follow but were stopped by nurses.

They came over and sat with us.

"Sorry girls, only family is allowed with her." I told them.

"But why is she in labor? She shouldn't be due for another month at least." Fluttershy stated.

"We have no idea. The best we could come up with is because of Caine. We thought maybe humans are pregnant less." Rainbow responded.

"Well let's hope so because if not, that baby is in for a world of trouble." Applejack said with a sad look. It was true, ponies who were born premature often didn't survive. And if the colt didn't survive we didn't think Twilight could either. She was so defeated when Caine died. That is, until she heard she was pregnant, she looked happy again and she attained this kind of glow. She looked at all the manuals and magazines about pregnancy and did everything in her power to make sure the baby was healthy. She even gave up magic since we didn't know what race the baby would be and unicorn magic was dangerous to pegasus and earth pony fetuses. We eventually did learn that it was going to be a pegasus, which we were all confused about since Caine started off as an earth stallion and Twilight was a unicorn but we all agreed that we would love him no matter how weird he turned out to be.

We waited for what felt like hours. None of us dared to talk about anything, we all wanted to be ready to see the colt, or comfort Twilight in case of the worst.

Eventually, Shining came back out and told us that Twilight wanted to see us. We followed him to her bedroom and walked in.

What awaited us was something of splendor. There was Twilight, looking down at a miniature version of shining armor with wings. We all crowded around her and she looked up at us.

"Have you decided on a name?" Fluttershy asked.

"I think I have. How do you girls feel about the name Lightning Sparkle?"

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><p><strong>AN: And now this story is officially done. Don't worry there won't be an Epilogue part two. And yes, it's clunky. I couldn't really come up with something better. And now, thanks to my forgetfulness, you guys now have more information on Caine's son. See ya on the flip side.**


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